The link between rap music and youth crime and violence: A review of the literature and issues for future research

Tatum, Becky L.

doi:10.1080/1478601x.1999.9959513

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Our study presents a computational analysis of over 27,000 rap lyrics spanning from 1971 to 2016, revealing a robust correlation between the themes of rap lyrics and relevant social indicators like rates of crime, poverty, drug arrests, and sexual assaults. Contrary to views dismissing the genre as largely graphic or offensive (Alexander 2003;Best 1993;Sacco and Kennedy 2002;Tanner et al 2009;Tatum 1999), we find that rap lyrics dynamically reflect current social conditions. This tight coupling occurs without significant time delays or cross-correlation, aligning with long-standing theories in cultural sociology that emphasize the embeddedness of cultural artifacts and styles within the social contexts and constraints navigated by their creators (Griswold 1987) as a channel to narrate lived experiences.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Rap Music as a Social Reflection: Exploring the Relationship Between Social Conditions and Expressions of Violence and Materialism in Rap Lyrics

Park,

Rojas

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Rap music, often scrutinized for its portrayal of violence, misogyny, materialism, and drug use, can serve as an intriguing case study to empirically explore whether art reflects its time. While existing literature has consistently confirmed the prevalence and increasing trend of these themes in rap lyrics, investigations considering the social context during the production of these songs remain scarce. By analyzing lyrical expressions related to physical and street violence, misogyny, money, and drug use in 27,445 underground and mainstream rap singles released in the United States from 1971 to 2016, we observe significant temporal variations in the prevalence of these themes, each following distinct patterns. Importantly, these themes in lyrics are strongly correlated with pertinent social indicators, including the rates of crime, sexual assault, poverty, and DEA arrests, without significant cross-correlations. These findings suggest that music serves as a mirror of the social and economic realities of the time, providing insights into the depiction of deep-seated social problems through art forms.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Rap Music as a Social Reflection: Exploring the Relationship Between Social Conditions and Expressions of Violence and Materialism in Rap Lyrics

Park,

Rojas

et al. 2024

Preprint

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“…Misogyny, substance abuse and violence are now often portrayed as characteristics of the hip-hop culture. Studies show that younger people who listen to rap and hip-hop are more likely to abuse alcohol and commit violent actions [2]. According to a survey conducted on individuals 25 years old or younger, two-fifths of the study sample (38%) reported use of marijuana and 13% use of club drugs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hip-Hop Culture Incites Criminal Behavior: A Deep Learning Study

Abhange

Jadhav

Deshpande

et al. 2021

Intelligent Sustainable Systems

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For centuries, music has been an inseparable part of many human cultures. The rise of the hip-hop culture over the last 50 years has turned into a powerful movement, empowering people from various communities and making their voices heard. However, certain parts of hip-hop and rap music have started being associated with misogyny, substance abuse and violent behavior. This study aims to find a correlation between lyrics of hip-hop and rap songs that glorify such illicit behavior through their lyrics and the actual rate of criminal activity of individuals that are directly or indirectly influenced by hip-hop culture. This research employs NLP concepts to build a model that detects song lyrics that falls into any of the 3 categories-"Misogyny," "Substance Abuse" and "Violence." A comparative study is conducted by training multiple models including multinomial naïve Bayes, random forest and LSTM on a manually collected and labeled dataset consisting of rap song lyrics released between 1970 and 2020. The highest performing model (LSTM-87% accuracy) was subsequently used to detect objectionable lyrics in popular rap songs of the decade of 2010-2019. To obtain a correlation of these with the criminal activity of the target population, official data of criminal activity (2010-2019) of citizens aged 0-29 from the largest hip-hop influenced areas in the world are compiled. This dataset is analyzed and to obtain strong evidence of a correlation between objectionable rap song lyrics being promoted through song lyrics and the criminal tendencies of the youth that is primarily affected by it.

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“…In contrast, other researchers failed to find a link between delinquent behaviors to rap music or hesitated to interpret their findings as causative. A review of literature published in the 1990s (Tatum, 1999) yielded nine studies regarding the relationship between deviant behavior and rap music and concluded that there was a split between those studies that could find an association between the two variables to those researchers that could not find a connection at all. Even those studies that did yield an association between the two factors were hesitant to declare it a causative relationship and uncertain which factor was the cause, the music or the deviant activities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Systematic Review on the Functions of Rap Among Gangs

Lozon

Bensimon

2015

Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol

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Although the field of gangs is well studied, information regarding the way gangs may use or misuse music for different needs is sparse. The aim of this systematic review is to gather descriptive and empirical information to ascertain the important roles rap music possesses within gang life. This review suggests five main functions of rap used within gangs with an emphasis on the subgenre of gangsta rap. First, rap facilitates antisocial behavior by reinforcing such messages in its lyrics. Second, its deviant lyrics serve as a reflection of the violent reality experienced in many urban ghetto communities. Third, it operates as a means for constructing individual and collective identity, as well as resistance identity. Fourth, it functions as an educating force by teaching its members how to act and respond in the urban ghetto. Finally, rap glorifies gang norms among newcomers and successfully spreads its values to the general population.

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The link between rap music and youth crime and violence: A review of the literature and issues for future research

Cited by 8 publications

References 17 publications

Rap Music as a Social Reflection: Exploring the Relationship Between Social Conditions and Expressions of Violence and Materialism in Rap Lyrics

Rap Music as a Social Reflection: Exploring the Relationship Between Social Conditions and Expressions of Violence and Materialism in Rap Lyrics

Hip-Hop Culture Incites Criminal Behavior: A Deep Learning Study

A Systematic Review on the Functions of Rap Among Gangs

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