While convincing research has linked exposure to violence on television or in films to delinquency and later criminality, in concentrating on effects on the individual, earlier media research has not adequately described how popular media also create and reproduce a general culture of violence in which norms and expectations are defined. Research which exposes children to short clips of violence and observes their behavior immediately afterwards does not have the potential fully to contribute to our understanding of such a complex cultural product. We also need to know how violence in the media influences public discussion about violence in real life, changing and distorting people's views of the prevalence and location of violent crime, and of who is being hurt by it.