Written evidence to be reported to the House

Part of Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 5:45 pm on 16 October 2007.

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Jan Berry: I think that we are becoming desensitised to violence and I think that it takes more to shock sometimes, because of what people have become used to. There is no doubt that there are some people within society who are more susceptible to watching something and then going out and doing it. There is a whole host of other people who can watch exactly the same programme and it will not make any difference to them; they are able to rationalise it. However, if it is a person who cannot rationalise what they are seeing then, yes, it can have an effect on their behaviour. There is no doubt about that.

Police officers will deal with incidents, from the very minor to the very major, where they can see a programme on television, or watch a film, and you can guarantee that over the next few days you will have to go and deal with incidents like that. It ranges from very minor incidents, such as people throwing stones off motorway bridges; the following day, there will be cases of people throwing stones off motorway bridges. Most people will rationalise that; they will think that it is stupid, do not do it. However, those people who cannot rationalise it in that way can be and are affected by what they see on the screen.