Do Violent Video Games Cause Certain Crimes?

The most extensive argument many have argued toward violent video games affecting one’s behavior can simply be described as that many shooters were fans of violent video games before committing the shootings. A common example people making this argument raise are the Columbine shooters, who were big fans of the video game Doom. While many believe that Doom’s excessive gore and violence led the two teens to perpetrate the mass shooting, that is not the case. What those who argue against video games fail to realize that those who commit these crimes had a history of other conditions. After many mass shootings, researchers often discovered in autopsies that the suspect had a long history of aggression or mental health problems that gaming was not responsible for. Patrick Markey and Christopher J. Ferguson, writers for US News, wrote

School massacres have become more prevalent in this last decade. As part of the police investigation that concludes the shooting, they look for a motive. The first thing that people are frequently told from the news media is that the suspect’s motive was from playing a violent video game, not that they have a mental illness that may have caused them to execute their mass murder. Sane players of video games grasp the fact that they are playing a video game. “Their ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality prevents them from emulating video game violence in real life” (ProCon). Whereas people who have a mental

As a hook in his article “When Life Imitates Video,” John Leo describes the Columbine High School massacre which took place near the city of Littleton, Colorado in 1999. Leo claims the actions taken by the teen shooters are due to the violent video games that* many young people play. The rest of his essay builds from this idea, arguing that violent video games desensitize players and encourages dangerous and delinquent behaviors in young children and teens. To effectively convince his target audience, those who have not yet had exposure to the idea of a connection between video games and behavior, of this idea, Leo utilizes an appeal to pathos and logos.

The article, “The Truth About Video Games and Gun Violence” by Erik Kain discusses how video games and gun violence correlates. The author opens up with someone by the name of Aaron Alexis who resorted to gun violence while playing video games that contained violence. There is a violent video game that scares parents and behavioral experts. There has been a debate on whether people who play video games later have violent behavior. Throughout the years, video games continue to show images portraying violence.

On April 20th, 1999 two teenagers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into their school in Columbine Colorado and began a one-hour long killing spree, which ended in the death of 12 of their fellow classmates and one teacher and left another 28 wounded. The shooters then took their own lives. The two teenage gunmen did not have a previous history of violence but were both enthusiasts of killing-oriented video games. The violence in video games was a major factor in teaching these kids how to shoot other people in real life. Violent video games can and have led children to committing acts of violence against other children and adults.          

Video games and murderers with troubled backgrounds have been linked in the media for over twenty- four years. Heavy media coverage on the connection between these two subjects began in 1997 after an occurrence in an Alaskan high school. Evan Ramsey seemed like an

As the level of violence in video games increases, so does the level of concern for those who play them. Some people are quick to blame school shootings on games just because the kid played a “violent” game. “The topic of videogames and violence can be compared to the chicken or the egg question, which came first, violent games or violent behavior”(Violence and Videogames). However most kids in mass shootings tend to have easy access to guns and are mentally unstable.

Kain, Erik. “The Truth About Video Games and Gun Violence.” Mother Jones, 11 June 2013, www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/06/video-games-violence-guns-explainer/.

Can violent video games truly be a cause of real violence in our adolescents? Can they really lead to such terrible tragedies and massacres like the one at Columbine high school? That is exactly what writer John Leo is suggesting in his essay, “When Life Imitates Video.” He starts us off here by pointing out the similarities between the actions taken during the Littleton massacre and the events of video games like the two shooters often played; and he criticizes the plethora of shooting games available today and how realistic they are. These games that are played by so many today, Leo warns, could “blur the boundary between fantasy and reality.”

Following the April 1999 Columbine High School shooting, the April 2007 Virginia Tech rampage, and the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, considerable debate has emerged regarding the impact of hyper-aggressive, violent video games as a causal agent for such murderous behavior by young adults. In a videotape recorded before the Columbine shooting, Eric Harris, one of the two teenager shooters, expressed enthusiasm for the planned shooting, saying it would be "like [profanity] Doom.” Seung-Hui Cho, the twenty-three year-old who killed thirty-two people at Virginia Tech University was a big fan of violent

Often we link school shootings to people who are recluse and spend hours playing violent video games. Most violent video games promote killing, by giving rewards. Evidence supports that this is true, but video games are not the only cause of crazy, illogical shooters walking into an unprotected school setting to kill students and staff. After the intensive investigation of many of the recent school shootings,14 were linked to violent video games including a local one at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. The more violence that our brain becomes accustomed to, the more we think it is acceptable to shoot and kill people. These video games lead to a more dangerous world for all of us.

Evan Ramsey stated, “I did not understand that if I… pull out a gun and shoot you, there’s a good chance you’re not getting back up. You shoot a guy in ‘Doom’ and he gets back up. You have got to shoot the things in ‘Doom’ eight or nine times before it dies” (Jaccarino 1). This is just one case of what violent games can do to a child. Evan Ramsey was only twelve when he brought a shotgun to his Alaskan high school, killing and injuring both faculty and students (Jaccarino 1). The Ramsey case took place in the 1990’s where the technology was not really what it is today. As technology advances, games are becoming more realistic. The games include behavior that a child, whose brain is developing, might try to emulate. Children, ages 3 – 16,

The violence computer game have already become a part of our life. This game also make deepth influence of teennager in the world. “Evan Ramsey snuck a shot gun into his high school and shot a student and the principal and wounded two others.

In the article ‘Shooting in the Dark’, the author discussed on the effects of playing violent video games and is trying to determine if it may be linked to aggressiveness in people, mostly focusing on adolescent and kids. The author used examples such as the killers from mass shootings like Columbine High School, and the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado having something in common - that they were all video gamers. In the argument, the author gathers evidences from experts and studies to determine if playing violent video games do play a role with why people go through rampages or have the urge to want to do so.

After conducting several review of video game and their influence, Gael Four and Nidal Nanbhan Abou mentioned “Although it has been suggested that several mass murders were influence by violent video games, scientific data do not support any causal link between exposure to video game violence and school shooting.” Kain Eric also hold the similar opinion “Moreover, determining why somebody carries out a violent act like a school shooting can be very complex; underlying mental-health issues are almost always present.” To commit homicide is not a causal task for ordinary people; hurting others for no reason can be equally difficult. Individual with heathy mental health won’t go outside and start to kill everyone, after playing violent games. Video games may raise people’s aggression, but thought is different from action. We bear consequences for our actions. Rather than trying to prove video games violence are dangerous which fitting public’s taste, researchers should try to find out the real reason behind those terrible