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Cavanagh, John R. "The Comics War." Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 40.(1949): 28–35. 
Added by: joachim (13/02/2012, 13:07)   Last edited by: joachim (28/02/2017, 11:40)
Resource type: Journal Article
Language: en: English
DOI: 10.2307/1138349
BibTeX citation key: Cavanagh1949
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Categories: General
Keywords: Kulturpolitik, Media effects, Psychology, Statistics, USA
Creators: Cavanagh
Collection: Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology
Views: 19/785
Attachments   URLs   http://www.jstor.org/stable/1138349
Abstract
The author begins with a sobering defense of comics on a scientific basis: »Little factual evidence has been produced that the comics are harmful.« (29) He even casts a suspicious light on the critics: »I should like to digress for a moment to suggest that some of the vehemence against the comics is aroused in those adults who have trouble in handling their own aggressiveness and whose conscious or unconscious conflicts are stirred into action by what they see there.« (34) He concludes with remarks on the responsibility of parents for the reading matters of their children: »[…] parents who develop a distaste for comic books for whatever reason, are not helping their children to deal with them in a realistic manner. It would be much better if they inquired into them, find out what their children like about them and why they find them so absorbing. Any undesirable comics would disappear off the news stand if parents took sufficient interest to look over the comics their children read and to direct their reading.« (34)
It’s remarkable that at the end of his essay Cavanagh proposes some rules for publishers, which look very similar to some of the 1954 guidelines of the Comics Code Authority: »[…] most of the objectionable features of the comics would be remedied if the publishers would adhere to a few simple rules among which I would like to suggest: (1) Law enforcement officers should not be made to look ridiculous or silly. (2) Omit references to petty crimes or crimes committed against or by children. (3) Omit pictures of scantily clad women, of women being tortured by men or of chained women. (4) The cover of the book should reflect its contents.« (35)

(Joachim Trinkwitz)


Added by: joachim  Last edited by: joachim
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