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Violence with a Clean Conscience

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Violence with a Clean Conscience CJM CKDONALJDSnCElUfnEBS VIOLENCE WITH A CLEAN CONSCIENCE Crime fiction and the the solution of a mystery. Much crime fiction presents us with a case to be enjoyment of violence solved, and we enjoy watching Inspector Morse or Miss Marple-like figures break Why bother to give any thought to crime the enigma. Even if there is no mystery, fiction? After all, it is trivial at best, junk there is someone to be caught or a con- at worst - so runs a common estimation. flict to be resolved, and the story is the It attracts attention most frequently when narrating of that resolution. This pattern a panic about violent crime focuses at- of story-telling is so widespread and so tention on the question of the possible closely related to the structure of all effects of a constant diet of television narrative that it seems likely that it is the violence. Indeed the recent appalling case source of fictional pleasure in its own of baby James Bulger soon gave rise to right. It need not necessarily involve governmental condemnation of such TV violence, although commonly the crime 'entertainment'. As anyone knows who that gives rise to the story is a violent one has tried to investigate the equation 'vio- - the Inspector Morses of this world do lence on the screen = violence on the not stoop to investigating petty theft. streets', the difficulty of a clear-cut analy- Perhaps the resolution of a mystery is sis is equalled only by the volume of the just a version of the restoration of order writing devoted to it. in general, of which the simplest version If TV violence does cause violent would be the 'And they all lived happily behaviour, it can only be because those ever after' of fairy tales, which provides always a challenge to the legitimacy of a so affected get pleasure from the stories us with a sense that the world has been supposedly universal social and moral in question: 'effects' of mass media fic- set to rights again. order. Crime therefore represents one of tion are necessarily filtered through pleas- When the hero uses violence to the frontiers of society: to step into crime ure. What does the pleasure derive from? achieve such a resolution we are con- involves stepping beyond the bounds of Analysis of these texts suggests there are fronted with a double pleasure: the self- a particular moral universe. Of course it several answers. assertion of the hero, with whom we is true that in the real world different identify or empathise, leads to the resto- sections of the population evaluate par- Heroes... ration of order, a newly sanitised world, ticipation in different criminal activities and we can have a doubly clean con- in a variety of ways; but the most widely Crime fiction involves the activities science. accepted morality of our societies, the of a hero. This is a word that is difficult one that is backed by the force of institu- to say with a straight face nowadays, but ... And villains tions such as the education system, the the emotion of admiration, or the sense criminal law, and the informal judge- of wish-fulfilment that is experienced So far I have spoken of crime fiction ment system of 'respectability', indeed when watching a character do something which is written so to speak from the asserts just this. In a real sense, the com- difficult and exciting - like winning a point of view of law and order: stories mission of crime sets one beyond a par- fight or catching a criminal - is exactly where a crime is committed and the ticular boundary, at least until others are the kind of feeling that was traditionally detective hero - or someone similar - convinced that reform is sincere and associated with heroes in a less self- catches this person and the moral bal- permanent. As a result, crime is among conscious age. A large percentage of ance of the world is thereby restored. But other things always potentially exciting: crime fiction involves violence being much crime fiction is not written from stepping across the moral boundary is meted out by the character we most ap- this point of view: it is written from the inherently risky and involves a certain prove of, and whose morality is pre- point of view of the criminal, who seeks level of self-commitment. sented in the story as being beyond doubt to assert himself (or more rarely herself) - James Bond, for instance (although the by illegal means, and often violent ones. film versions of these stories are prob- Here the relationship between pleasure to step into crime involves ably too camped up to arouse anything as and morality is obviously more equivo- stepping beyond the red-blooded as excitement). Indeed, it cal, for even if justice is done in the sense bounds of a particular has often been suggested, and even ex- that the criminal is punished in the end - perimentally 'proved', that we are most as in the classic gangster films - nonethe- moral universe likely to be made more aggressive by less this may be more than outweighed These considerations apply with in- watching films where we approve of the by our enjoyment of the sheer exuberant creased force where violence, and espe- violence being portrayed. In any event it energy with which he pursues his pur- cially murder, is concerned. The person seems certain that one of the main sources poses and which may lead us to overlook who commits murder has taken one of of pleasure in crime fiction is empathy questions of morality. the few virtually irrevocable steps be- for or identification with the hero, and Crime and violence are potentially yond the boundaries of our moral uni- such pleasure probably includes the pos- exciting, regardless of the morality of verse and has therefore enacted a self- sibility of enjoying violence with a clean the actions involved, because they in- commitment of the highest order. The conscience. volve a high degree of self-commitment. Another source of pleasure is no doubt Crime - at least in modern societies - is Contd on page 16 15 CJM CRDDNALJUSTICE MATTISS RETURN OF THE CRIME COMIC were instituted nationwide. Crime comics: In 1954 The Comics Code Authority successors to the was established by a coalition of comic book publishers to regulate the content penny dreadful of comics. Its strict standards sanitised, Like the dinosaur, Crime comics were homogenised and essentially juvenilised once mighty. Unlike the dinosaur they're comic strips. Comics that did not reach staging a comeback. A new title - 'True the standard could not carry the seal of Crime Stories' - has recently appeared the code and therefore found that on the comic-book shelves, a far cry magazine distributors refused to carry from its illustrious predecessor - 'Crime them. Some publishers went broke and does not Pay' (June 1942). the increasing access to television further ' Crime does not Pay' saw publication hit comic sales. The ISTD during this due to the waning popularity of super- period were actively involved in heroes and was an instant winner due to petitioning Parliament to have comics its violent, bloody and sexy stories. It banned because of their influence on the featured photos and stories based on true young. crime events. Advertisements within its Comics never fully recovered from pages made it obvious the comic was this attack even though the well- aimed at a dual audience of adults and intentioned Wertham never satisfactorily children - 'Get Crime does not Pay! proved that 'trash' crime comics were Show it to dad, He'll love it!' At the © the direct causal link to crimes of height of its popularity in 1944 it boasted Published by Eclipse Comics Feb 93 violence, and even to mental illness and a massive 2 million readership. 'purse snatching' as was alleged at the Unfortunately, by 1948 this success (1954). He believed that comics 'over- time. spawned a plethora of cheap, shoddily stimulated children's fantasy in the Crime comics slowly faded away. created comics all with a focus on crime. direction of violence and cheap sexiness.' Now in the 1990s they seem set to make Titles such as'Crime Detective Comics', Wertham further charged that comics a return. 'Criminals on the Run','Crime Smasher' undermined morals, glorified violence One opponent of Wertham stated that and 'Law-Crime', to name just a few, and 'were sexually aggressive in an 'Juvenile delinquency is the product of made it seem that the emphasis was the abnormal way' and concluded that comic pent-up frustrations, stored up triumph of Law and Order over criminals, book reading 'was a distinct influencing resentments and bottled up fears. It is not but others contended that this was wrong, factor in the case of every single the product of cartoons or captions.' The that in fact crime comics glorified delinquent or disturbed child we studied.' debate continues in much the same terms criminals and encouraged criminal The press took note and eventually today. behaviour. Chief among the dissenters certain crime magazines were banned in Cliff Sweeney is a freelance writer on was an American psychiatrist called America. 'Standards of Evaluation' of Frederick Wertham. what was objectionable in comics were the comic book medium. Concerned about the adverse affects created by newsdealers and civic officials Note: Comics and videos for MrPilcher's on children reading about the violence across the country; police departments and Mr Sweeney's articles were supplied and sex found in post-war comic books, made threats of legal action against news- by Comic Showcase, 76 Upper Neal Wertham wrote perhaps the most stands; and citizen's committees were Street, London WC2.
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