MEDIA PSYCHOLOGY, 1, 271-282. Copyright O 1999, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. The Attractions of Violent Entertainment Jeffrey Goldstein Department of Media & Communication University of Utrecht This article summarizes a project supported by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation on the attractions of violent entertainment. We consider why violence is such a prominent feature of entertainment. The audiences for violent entertainment are examined, as is the nature of the violence that attracts them. The role of sensation-seeking, context, the justice motive, and social control in the entertainment experience are considered. Violent entertainment is placed in historical and social contexts, demonstrating that its appeal varies with the times. In 1990 the International Herald Tribune reprinted the following in its column, "One Hundred Years Ago": 1890: Criminal Reading LONDON-The Telegraph mentions the arrest of a youthful burglar, who confessed that he was led into crime by reading the "Life of a Detective." The Telegraph thinks that such a book ought to have warned the boy of the dangers of a life of crime. "As a matter of fact the book seems rather to have stimulated than weakened the criminal propensities of the precocious student. Detective literature may be as injurious to the morals of the young as stories eulogizing the achievements of robbers, highwaymen and pirates." It is curious that detective stories are among the favorite books of youthful criminals. [13-14 Oct.] Whether detective or any other form of violent entertainment stimulates "criminal tendencies" has been widely discussed and studied. With predictable regularity, legislators consider the potentially harmful effects that violent images in mass media may have on our society and our youth, from hearings about "The Attractions of Violent Entertainment" by Jeffrey Goldstein, from Why We Watch: The Attractions of Molent Entertainment, edited by Jeffrey Goldstein. Copyright O 1998 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Used by permission of Oxford University Press, Inc. Requests for reprints should be sent to Jeffrey Goldstein, Department of Media & Communication, University of Utrecht, Post box 80 140,3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands.