A culture of violence

When I lived in north America I was taken aback to discover police offices in some schools, apparently required in order to cope with violent and other crimes. Will that become necessary in Australia? News of a thirteen-year-old charged with murder is a chilling omen. Violence against overseas students is something else which causes concern and affects our reputation abroad and dents our Aussie pride. Window shopping in the CBD in an evening may no longer be a safe option for many. One could not identify a single cause for the fact that we seem to be developing a culture of violence but it may have something to do with the diet of entertainment served up by the media. Programme after programme on the telly features mayhem and murder as do the video games which fill the minds of impressionable kids. Small wonder if seeing becomes behaving and copycat violence increases!