Is Violence Caused by Video Games and Movies? Research Does Not Support This Claim.

844 Words2 Pages

It is not uncommon to hear others claim that violence in the media is directly correlated to violence within youth. However, the article “Violent Video Games and Movies Causing Violent Behavior” coauthored by Eugene Beresin and Steve Schlozman exposes the truth; the concept of violence in media relating to violence in real life does not have scientific backing. Nonetheless, it has been shown that children prone to violence chose to play engage in violent media sources at a higher level than those with a less violent history. The article “Violent Video Games and Movies Causing Violent Behavior” successfully and convincingly uses Aristotle’s and Toulmin’s concept of argument to state that there is no evidence that violence within media directly affects children.
In the United States we have the highest homicide rate, but we do not have the highest amount of violent media consumption. If violence were to be linked to violent media, particularly violent video games, countries such as Japan would be expected to have higher rates of homicide. In the Washington Post, Fareed Zakaria expresses “the Japanese are avid video game players and have a homicide rate close to zero” (Schlozman, and Beresin). Japan is one of the highest consumers of video games and yet do not have significant amounts of violence. The amount of homicides within the US and Japan are almost polar opposites, something that Schlozman and Beresin prove and explain through the use of Aristotle’s logos concept. Violence continues within the United States even though “…the rate of video game use of all kinds is actually decreasing in the United States, and many of the top selling games are decidedly non-violent” (Schlozman, and Beresin). Therefore, even though correlation...

... middle of paper ...

...watching. If violence within media does effect the amount of violence within a society, there is not a single source of the violence within the media causing the outburst therefore this violence would not only be linked to video games. Schlozman and Beresin, the experts are unable to make solid evidential correlations between violent games and movies to violence within life, then the public should stop believing they are capable of making those same correlations. Although, when all is said and done, the evidence does not show a correlation, but it also does not completely get rid of the possibility of a correlation. We must all take caution when immersing ourselves and those around us in in violent content, because there is no way to rule out possible correlations within the foreseeable or even far off future; circumstances and knowledge are ever changing concepts.

Open Document