Do modern video games contribute to the increasing level of violence that we see around us? Can we really attribute the shootings and bombings we see on the news to the increased violence and realism of video games? Every day, people are exposed to violence through the TV shows and movies they watch, the video games they play, and national media networks who bombard us with graphic information portraying violent and hard-hitting global events. To top it all off, the media frequently loves to make outrageous claims that video games either “inspired” or “trained” the culprits of many of these violent acts. In the article “Are Violent Video Games Harmful?,” Guy Porter and Vladan Starcevic claim that “while playing video games outwardly appears to be an innocuous activity, the limited data available suggest playing violent video games may be related to aggressive and/or antisocial behavior” (4). I strongly disagree with their statement; not only do I believe that violent video games do not directly cause aggression, but I also feel that gaming is a very social activity that is commonplace among today’s youth.
Before we can explore the claim that playing video games can be associated with violent acts, the emotions and mental patterns which lead to violent crime must be outlined first. Some very common violent crimes which will serve as good examples are armed robbery and murder. Generally speaking, when someone commits or plans to commit a robbery, it is out of necessity due to a person’s environment, or a lack of personal drive to work for their own possessions. During the act of the crime, the robber is generally just as terrified as, or even more terrified than, the victims. It’s these feelings that can cause a robber to...
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...ople must learn to take responsibility for their own actions and parents will need to take greater responsibility for the proper raising of their children. If these conditions are never met, society will move from one scapegoat to another until every personal freedom we have is lost to restrictions and regulations.
Works Cited
Porter, Guy, and Vladan Starcevic. "Are violent video games harmful?." Australasian Psychiatry 15.5 (2007): 422-426.Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 23 Feb. 2010.
Glazer, S. (2006, November 10). Video Games. CQ Researcher, 16, 937-960. Retrieved February 11, 2010, from CQ Researcher Online
Bluemke, Matthias, Monika Friedrich, and Joerg Zumbach. "The influence of violent and nonviolent computer games on implicit measures of aggressiveness." Aggressive Behavior 36.1 (2010): 1-13. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 23 Feb. 2010.
"Do Violent Video Games Cause Behavior Problems?" The Premier Online Debate Website. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 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.
Previous research has come up with results that support the idea that violence effects the player, but studies such as the one conducted by Anderson and Ford (1997) can only support this on a short term basis. In these experiments players’ were exposed to one of three different game types, highly aggressive, mildly aggressive or a control game. After the game, hostility, anxiety and depression were measured using a checklist. The experiment found that hostility was increased in both game condition groups compared to the control, although the high aggression led to significantly more anxiety. This shows that playing aggressive video games can have short-term negative effects on the players and they emotional states. It also supports the idea that more aggressive games create more hostility and aggression in the players.
Whether violent media content leads to real-life violence is always debatable. And in recent years, school shootings have made video games a new focus of public concern and scientific research. In public opinion, video games cause more aggression in comparison to traditional violent media contents because video games have more features of interactivity, "due to the active engagement and participation of players" (Hummer and Wang et al. 137). But more and more reports tell us that video games are not the main cause of school shooting issues; rather it is the negligence of parents, schools, and communities.
According to the American Psychological Association, there is not sufficient evidence to prove that violent video games are the cause of violence and crime in real life. The only correlation between violence in video games and real life, is that those that play violent video games are slightly more aggressive, not violent. More studies and research is needed to determine a better path and to create more knowledge on the subject.
Children who play more violent video games are more likely to have increased aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and decreased prosocial helping, according to a scientific study (Anderson & Bushman, 2001). In certain video games, the player is being rewarded for the act of violence, so children are seeing that as a vouch to act violent in the real world. Researchers have also found that violent video games could result into aggressive behavior. Additionally, children are becoming more socially isolated from others, and they are also missing exercise activities. Video games are in fact harmful to those who play them, and especially people who play them
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.
The first violent video game invented was during the 1970’s (Anderson & Bushman, 2001), since then, the degree of violence present in a video game has significantly increased. Today, the graphics, sounds, characters in video games have become more realistic than before any of the past years. Real-life associations are easier to make if a video game is realistic. Violent video games impacts individuals psychologically, physiologically and socially. On one side, these elements results in an increase in aggression, addiction, lack of empathy and desensitization (Myers, 2013, p. 295), fluctuation of heartbeats, high levels of blood pressure, and changes in the perception of society (Anderson & Bushman, 2001 ). In the other case, the individuals do not experience these effects altogether or experience very little because of factors such as strong morals and they have no symptoms of any mental illnesses such as depression or anxiety (MediResource, 2013). These individuals demonstrate a high level of cognitive development like critical thinking and motivational skills (Myers, 2013, p. 295).
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)
thanks to the APA (American Psychological Association) task force on violent media.”A consistent relationship was found between violent video game use and increases in aggressive behaviour,and aggressive cognitions”.The report said “no single influence led a person to act aggressively or violently”. Rather, it was an "accumulation of risk factors" that “resulted in such behaviour.”Games were innocent with games like pong or pac-man. But then later violent games like mortal combat or call of duty were created.In violent video
Violent video games increase aggressive behaviour in children. Studies involving around 3000 participants found that aggression has a direct relation with violent video games. Certainly, this effect of violent video games on aggression is as strong as the effect of condom use on risk of HIV infection; furthermore, they found that violent video games increase aggressions in both genders in children and adults in experimental and non-experimental studies (Anderson & Bushman 2001, pp. 353-359). Another study says that violent video games lead children to commit felonies. Craig Anderson of Iowa state university in Ames and his colleague Karen Dill found that people who play violent games are more likely to perpetrate assaults and robberies (Muir 2004, p.26A). Another study was published in the Journal of Adolescence by Barbara Krahe and her ...
Scott, Derek. “The Effect of Video Games on Feelings of Aggression.” The Journal of Psychology 129.2
The topic of gun violence has become a great debate over the past couple of years. In relation to video games, the two have become linked together in the news of violent attacks. According to Christopher Ferguson’s Is video game violence bad, he states that “it is reasonable to suggest that cogent and honest arguments could be made both for and against the belief that violent games contribute to mild aggressive acts” (325). However, some studies suggest that those who are consumed with video games every day may begin to exhibit some violent behavior themselves. Therefore, in my own opinion I believe video games and gun violence are directly related to each other.
Thesis Statement: Violence in video games does not affect levels of aggression in people as long as you follow the MSRB rating scale.
...n, Christopher. "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly: A Meta-Analytic Review Of Positive And Negative Effects Of Violent Video Games." Psychiatric Quarterly 78.4 (2007): 309-316. Academic Search Premier. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.