The question that violent video games might increase violence in young children has been on the political table for a decade. It has been something that I have personally questioned for a while as well as tried to find an answer to. The Supreme Court is going to be holding a trail in they coming weeks where they are breaking down this very same issue. Professor Scott Cunningham from Baylor University and Professor Michael R. Ward from University of Texas at Arlington have conducted a national study to see if violent video games make children more violent. The research study concluded that although violent video games give players temporary aggression while playing the game i.e. getting killed over and over, losing to your friends, or being stuck in a level(Anyone would get frustrated even if they game wasn’t violent). It ultimately decreases the chances of them committing a violent crime in the future. Ward, and Cunningham state,
Psychological studies invariably find a positive relationship between violentvideo game play and aggression. However, these studies cannot account for either aggressiveeffects of alternative activities video game playing substitutes for or the possible selection of relatively violent people into playing violent video games. That is, they lack external validity.We investigate the relationship between the prevalence of violent video games and violent crimes. Our results are consistent with two opposing effects. First, they support the behavioraleffects as in the psychological studies. Second, they suggest a larger voluntary incapacitationeffect in which playing either violent or non-violent games decrease crimes. Overall, violentvideo games lead to decreases in violent crime.
The researchers note that violent video game sales have ultimately increased in the past ten years and violent crimes have radically decreased. Correlation is never causation but it does slightly get evidence toward argument that violent video games do not cause violence.
The chart above shows a peak in violent video games sales(shown by the red line). During that same time in January 2008 we had a decrease in violent crime. This does not indicate that the video game sales are causing the crime rate to go down but it does somewhat prove that it is not causing it to increase as well. Means video games don’t effect crime as much as bureaucracy would like them to.
The more you hold back or shelter children from the world the more they are going to want what they can’t have. I saw my friend rate R movie when I was 5 and played my first violent video game around that same again(8 bit violence lol) and I only murdered 10 people……..just kidding. Who the fuck you think I am Dexter?
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