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Gun Violence And Police Behavior Essay

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In 1967, social psychologists Leonard Berowitz and Anthony LePage conducted the first study demonstrating that the mere presence of weapons increases aggressive behavior. In the study, participants were angered by another person pretending to be a participant. Next, the participants were seated at a table where lied a shotgun and a revolver, or in the controlled experiment, a badminton racquet and shuttlecocks. When the experiment was administered, the items were described as being left on the table from previous experiments that the researcher forgot to put away. Then the participants were asked to deliver electric shocks to the person who had previously angered them. Berowitz and LePage concluded participants who saw the guns were more aggressive …show more content…

In our society, it is not uncommon to hear media outlets broadcasting violent events involving the use of guns, especially surrounding police officers. Today, the men in badges have taken over news outlets with stories of pepper-spraying protesters, wearing swat gear during peaceful marches, stereotyping civilians, and bursts of violence that sometimes result in death. This has become such a phenomenon, that one must ask what is causing this police misconduct? For starters, the answer is simple, and demonstrated above in Berowitz and LePage’s study. Officers seen with a gun holstered to their hip can instill the urge to become aggressive in certain situations. Police officials are also seen carrying a Taser and nightstick, which this display of weapons not only makes an officer more likely to become aggressive, but civilians as well. According to Ohio State psychology professor, Brad Bushman, “Weapons increase all of those aggressive thoughts, feelings, hostile appraisals and the type of thinking that somebody’s out to get you, or wants to hurt you” (Yuhas, Web). The second reason the weapons effect rains true in police misconduct is the amount of violence portrayed in the mass

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