Edwin Newman moderates this look into violence in America. Reporters include Linda Ellerbee and Floyd Kalber.
NBC pre-empted its entire prime-time schedule for this three hour study of violence in America, from street crime to movie mayhem.
Profiled are the gunshot and stabbing victims in Detroit, where the crime rate is reported t o be five times the national average; youth-gang members in New York's South Bronx, who talk about the omnipresence of violence in their lives; and concerned citizens of Friendship, Wisconsin (population: 641) where eight homicides have occurred in the past four years.
Other segments trace the role violence has played in American history and folklore; in sports like football and hockey; in movies ranging from "The Great Train Robbery" (1903) to "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1974); and on TV shows that, some say, may inure people to real-life violence.
Also investigated: child-abuse, wife-beating and rape, a sequence that includes an encounter session conducted in a prison between convicted rapists and victims of the crime.
NOTE: NBC REPORTS first appeared as a regularly scheduled serIes of investigative documentaries designed to probe and expose current issues. First broadcast September 12, 1972 - September 4, 1973 and then resuming on January 5, 1976, broadcasting a number of irregularly scheduled special NBC REPORTS that aired approximately once a month and continued into the 1980's.
