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...
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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.
Parenting.com brought up research on video games to argue about. They mention that a first-person shooter game is more serious than watching violence on T.V. A recent meta-analysis in 2010 of 12 earlier studies found a link between times spent playing video games and violent behavior later in life (Emmons, 2013). They mention the study that was taken place in 2004 from Journal of Adolescence showed that video games are more desensitized than TV. That the children that play violence game are more interactive than watching, their physical activity are different. However, they mention the other studies that failed to link between violent video game exposure and aggression (Emmons, 2013). They brought up a good point that most of the studies had focused on normal kids, the study does not consist of children with e...
One would be hard-pressed to find a household without any video gaming devices. In fact, over eighty percent of American households some sort of gaming device. On top of all that, violent video games have surged in popularity, occupying over 50% of the 30 top video games sold in 2015 (Kain). In light of recent mass shootings, video games are routinely accused as the culprit that influences one to violence. Researchers all over the world have tried to establish a causal relationship between video games and violence. Some researchers have come to the conclusion that video games, specifically violent ones, spark aggression. However, other researchers have come up with the opposite conclusion, that the studies that portray video games as detrimental
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Studies on the link between videogames and violent behaviors began in the late 1970’s. The first time a violent video game was introduced and raised some eyebrows about the amount of violence being displayed was with a certain racing video game. “The controversy dates all the way back to Death Race, a 1976 8-bit video game in which cars run over bad guys, turning them into tombstones” (Kelly, 1). The studies between videogames and violent behavior continued into the 1980’s. “In 1984, a study found that arcade games have a “calming effect” and that boys use them to blow off steam. Both studies relied on surveys and interviews asking boys and young men about their media consumption” (Kain, 2). As a result, the link between videogames and violent behavior has been studied for a long time.
In the last two decades, video games have become popular, especially violent video games such as Call of Duty, Unreal Tournament, and Grand Theft Auto, among others. According to Anderson and Bushman, “[a]bout 10% of children aged 2 to 18 play console and computer video games more than 1 hour per day; among 8- to 13-year-old boys, the average is more than 7.5 hours per week” (354). Due to their explicit violent content, violent video games have been seen as a negative influence in society by promoting aggression in the real world, thus increasing violence in society. Most people assume that playing violent video games has negative effects on players because violent video games create aggressive behaviors on the people who play them. However, studies show that violent video games bring some benefits, and people who normally choose to play violent video games are the ones that have been raised or have been exposed to a violent environment.
Video games are one of the most addictive things in the world. Researchers said that more than 1.2 billion people are playing games worldwide whatever genre is. Many people buy it to have fun with friends, other people buy it for themselves, and others just buy it because they don’t have nothing to do at home. What many people concern about is whether or not kids should play video games. In my opinion, I believe that video games can make kids more violent for three main factors.
Many people believe violence in video games result in violent outbreaks and unhealthy behavior in real world. Since the first Nineteen Eighties, violence in video games became a part of a political issue leading advocates to create theories that these styles of games are corrupting society. Studies have been created to seek out if there's a link between violent video games and violent behavior. Are these video games shaping today’s generation of youths to be violent? I believe that there's no correlation between violence in video games and violence in our society. I think this first of all, improves a large form of general skills, secondly, there are several alternative factors that contribute into creating society violent and finally, crime rates decrease because the quality of those forms of games increase.
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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)
“Contrary to the claims that violent video games are linked to aggressive assaults and homicides, no evidence was found to suggest that this medium was a major (or minor) contributing cause of violence in the United States.” (Markey, 290)
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...
Vastag, Brian. “Does Video Game Violence Sow Aggression? Studies Probe Effects of Virtual Violence on Children”, JAMA, Chicago: April 2201. Vol. 291, Iss. 15; pg. 1822. Retrieved: 16 August 2004