Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Violent video games increase aggression and violence summary
Violent video games increase aggression and violence summary
Does violent media influence people
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Do Violent Video Games Really Cause Violent Behavior?
Ninety-seven percent of adolescents play video games. Among them are murderers responsible for recent school shootings. Many people have claimed that the violent content of these games will cause the players to experience heightened levels of aggression, leading them to commit violent crimes; conversely, numerous studies have been performed which contradict this claim. Research indicates that playing violent video games does not increase aggressive behavior, or lead to violent criminal acts.
In the first place, data exists proving that violent video games do not lead to crimes. Researchers have observed the correlation between video game sales and violent crimes. Evidence suggests that crime rates have fallen while video game sales have increased. “‘We found that higher rates of violent video game sales related to a decrease in crimes, and especially violent crimes,’ said Dr. Ward...of the Center for European Economic Research in Mannheim, Germany” (Carey). This excerpt reveals that the sales of violent video games directly correlate with fewer violent acts. This observation highlights that violent video games do not cause people to commit violent crimes, since the crime rate has fallen as video game sales have risen. The observation that the crime rate did not increase with the sales of violent video games proves that point. Other researchers have verified this observation in their own studies. In one report, a psychology professor discovered that violent video games did not increase the risk of young players committing violent social acts, such as bullying (Nauert). Some people continue to claim that violent video games do, in fact, inspire criminals to commit unfathomable...
... middle of paper ...
...e a Force for
Good?."Review of General Psychology. 14.2 (2010): 68-81. Web. 3 Mar. 2014. .
Nauert, Rick. "In New Study, Video Games Not Tied to Violence in High-Risk Youth." PsychCentral.
Psych Central, 27 Aug 2013. Web. 27 Feb 2014. .
Skoric, Marko, and Dmitri Williams. "Internet Fantasy Violence: A Test of Aggression in an Online
Game."Communication Monographs. 72.2 (2005): 217-233. Web. 2 Mar. 2014. .
Vitelli, Romeo. "Can Video Games Cause Violence?."Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, 1 4
2013. Web. 26 Feb 2014. .
Dill, Karen E. and Dill, Jody C. “Video Game Violence: A Review of the Empirical
The shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado killing thirteen students and teachers shocked the world. “They were video gamers who seemed to be acting out some dark digital fantasy. It was as if all that exposure to computerized violence gave them the idea to go on a rampage – or at least fueled their urges” (Carey 1). The shooters of this incident learned their deadly skills from video games. Seventy percent of children ages eight to eighteen have access to violent video games at their home. “Boys who play Teen or Mature-rated games for a minimum of 40 minutes a day may witness over 180 incidents of aggression per day, or 5,400 incidents per month”(Smith, S.L., Lachlan, K.A., & Tamborini, R). Children that play violent video games at such a young age and experiencing such violent actions will start to increase in aggressive thoughts, feelings, and aggressive behavior.
“Violent Video Games And Young People.” Harvard Mental Health Letter 27.4 (2010): 1-3. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
People have always been looking for a reason why horrible things happen. The media is quick to blame video games as the target and cause of many shootings that have occurred, ever since Columbine and Quake. People have been blaming video games for violence for years now, ever since violent video games have been made. News reports blame video games more and more for each shooting, telling the public how this person played video games for x amount of hours a day, and that video games caused him or her to shoot people, and how video games encourage and reward violence. Anti-video game lobbyists have been campaigning to have violence removed from video games, citing resources that they themselves have created as reasons for such, poorly done studies where they confirm that kids are more aggressive through how much hot sauce they put on someone’s fries. While unbiased studies of video games and their links to violence are hard to come by, recent research has shown that video games do not in fact have a casual link to violence, and may even have the opposite effect. Violent video games have nearly no link to violence in teens or adults.
Since the 1970 video games have become more popular than ever before. Generating 11.7 billions of dollars of sells every year or more, the video game industry is considered one of the largest industries in this century. However, video games have been a topic of controversy. With the sales of violent video games going up and the increased violence in schools and teenagers, video games are always to blame. Many people speculate that video games are the cause on why many teenagers have developed aggressive and violent behavior, are desensitize to violence, and the increase violence in schools and public places. In contradiction, video games have little or no fault in teenagers’ violent behavior and shouldn’t always be blamed.
The allegation that videogames cause violent behavior in children has been present as long as videogames themselves. Some researchers said that the Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza, was one intense gamer. “Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech Shooter was seen by his roomates as odd because he never joined them in video games.”(Beresin) This debate will continue to go on in this country as long as there are horrific crimes that occur. There is much written in the research regarding this issue, and many differing views. The research that is presented in the next few paragraphs supports the theory that it is not the graphic video games that produce aggressive behavior, but other factors in a child’s life that create violent actions.
Although violent video games are thought to encourage real world violence, they actually help to prevent it. I am focusing on violent video games and how they affect juveniles because I feel that this issue needs to be looked at in the criminal justice community. It is an unnecessary distraction to blame the actions of a disturbed youth on a form of entertainment that has been used by millions of people without incident. A review article published in The Psychiatric Quarterly found that many studies which claim to indicate an increase in aggression due to video games are, in fact, biased! Once the bias is taken into account, the studies no longer find any correlation between youths who play violent video games and youths who demonstate aggression and violent behavior. (Ferguson, 2014)
middle of paper ... ... The Effects of Violent Video Game Habits on Adolescent Hostility, Aggressive Behaviors, and School Performance. Journal of Adolescence, 27. http://www.sciencedirect.com
Brady, Robert. "Violent Virtual Video Games and Hostile Thoughts." Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media (2004). EBSCO. DePaul Library. 7 Mar. 2008.
A review in 2004 did not show a clear relation between video game violence and real life violence. The study found that for every 1% increase in violent video game sales there was a .03% decrease in real life violence. (Fournis,
While many different case studies have been done all over the world, scientists have yet to prove that there is a direct correlation between violent video games and child aggression. Since the start of this quarter, this has been an issue that I have been doing extensive research on. Despite looking into several scholarly sources, I was surprised to see that many of my findings were pretty consistent with one another. For the mort part, what I found through my research was a bunch of statistics from case studies and the interpretation of those statistics from renowned scientists. In many cases, statistics and studies showed slight indications that violent video games have an effect on c...
Some people believe that violent video games can cause behavioral problems. This is not true; it is only their opinion. They may say people that play violent video games start having behavioral problems, and what was that cause? It is only people and it has no effect on them, only their own actions and their mental health issues. The violent video games for computers and consoles’ sales rate went up, but violent crime offenses went down.
With the development of technology, violent video games invaded every house, and now it played by every teenage in every family, whether on mobile phones, computers or gaming devices. Some people do not believe that those violent video games effect on the children, while others believe that the government should prevent the selling of these games. However, violent video games made a negative influence on everyone, on children brain like thinking skills, which made their behavior aggressive, on their physiological energy and feeling leading to segregation and violence between siblings in the same family, also on the parenting role of the parents, who are do not know anymore what they should do with their children.
Does violence in video games encourage wild behavior on impressionable children? A lot parents believe that their children are being influenced by video games to act a certain disrespectful way towards others or commit crimes. Yet, studies show that the arrests of juvenile teenagers have declined 71.9% while sales for popular, and violent, video games have increased 49.3% ("Crime in the United States, 2008," FBI website, Sep. 2009). Plus, a link between violent video games and rude behavior has not properly been connected. Video games do not pressurize teenagers, girls or boys, into violent personalities or to reenact the main characters performances. Video gamers aren’t encouraged by actions in the games they play because they have a sense of reality, the games they play can actually be an outlet for the rage they might hold in, and there are reasons for why games have ratings.
Do violent video games affect a persons behavior? Why are so many children hooked on violent video games? What do violent video games do to someones mind? Yes, the answer that everybody is looking for is staring us right in the face, yes violent video games makes a person more violent. Do you know video game developers spend millions of dollars developing violent video games and advertising these violent video games. All the money that goes into developing video games have something to do with making the games more addicting. Violent video games desensitizes violence in a childs mind. The answer is simple, violent video games makes a person violent. Exposing children to violent video games will train the child's mind for doing violent actions being done in the game. Mass homicides are linked to violent video games. Many studies show violent video games make a person behavior more aggressive.