N.J. Media productions full of violence don't, by themselves, send an individual on a rampage, Mr. Kubey said, but in a certain tiny percentage of people, they reinforce the notion that killing is justified and spawn imitation. Many other people lose some of their sensitivity to violence or become more fearful. Other experts point to violent video games as an even more pernicious influence than these passive media formats. Lt. Col. David Grossman, a psychologist who recently retired from the U.S. Army, sees some video games as the equivalent of the military's training given to increase the rate at which soldiers shoot to kill in battle. The idea of such training, he said, is to make killing a reflex, a reflex that could kick in with rage and a gun.
Researchers repeatedly caution against simple explanations for youth murder.
But many have sounded an alarm about the potentially lethal mix of a coarsened American culture, weapons, and psychological pain. These factors affect us all to some degree, but they poison these especially vulnerable kids.