Exposure to Television Crime Shows and Crime Learning Behaviours of Adolescents: A Case of Pakistani Juvenile Delinquents

The media have been condemned for contributing to crimes by glamorizing and publicizing criminal acts. The dynamic has come to be known as a copycat or contagion. This research focuses on the risky behaviours of Pakistani adolescents who are exposed to crime shows on television, which may have resulted for them to become juvenile delinquents. Juvenile delinquency is a serious problem worldwide and in Pakistan. The objective of the research are: to identify the most popular television crime shows among adolescents, : to find out how Pakistani adolescents learn crime method through television crime shows, : to investigate and describe the other negative (aggression) and positive (fear of bad consequences, hate of crime) effects of television crime shows on the behaviour of Pakistani adolescents, : to identify the role of socio economic factors that influence Pakistani adolescents' crime learning behaviour. The finding of this paper found that, the most of the studies on juvenile delinquency with respect to the media, especially on TV affects are on aggression. The deviant peers contribute to serious offending by child delinquents during the period of their transition to adolescence. (C) 2016 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy.org.uk