Do Violent Video Games Cause Violence?

Hundreds of studies have been done to determine whether violent video games will really make juveniles more violent. Randomized experiments were used in several studies to examine the short-term effect of violent video games (Anderson and Berkowitz et al. 90). In these studies, children were randomly assigned to play violent or nonviolent video games and then were observed when given an opportunity to be aggressive. The result was that children who played violent video games usually behaved aggressively.

A huge controversy in today’s society is violent video games and their behavioral effect on the children and adults who play them. Violent video games have been blamed for bullying, school shootings, and even violence towards women. Many have fought that violent video games desensitize players to real-life violence, and that they are teaching the youth that violence is an acceptable conflict-solving strategy. Other sources have stated otherwise. The 2004 Secret Service has stated that only one-eighth of attackers have exhibited interests in video games. Violent Video games do not cause violent behavior or behavior problems because it has not been proven that there is a link between violent video games and behavioral issues, playing video games provide a safe outlet for aggressive and angry feelings and reduces violence in young children, and violent juvenile crime has actually gone down since the violent video game popularity has increased.

Moreover, many kids deal with violence and can’t control it. As a result of having issues with violence some people play video games to let their violence and anger out. People need to understand that “ [b]ut overall, violent crime is down in the US-indeed, as violent games have become more popular, violent crime has fallen." (Erik Kain 1) The more popular the game is studies show violent

Violent video games do not cause violence. Just because a kid plays video games and shot someone does not mean it was because of the video games. According to an article written by Henry Jenkins on www.pbs.org, “But young people, in general, are more likely to be gamers - 90 percent of boys and 40 percent of girls play. The overwhelming majority of kids who play do NOT commit antisocial acts.” This shows two things. Just because a kid that happens to play video games and did something violent, does not mean it was because of the video games. His older sibling probably bullies them at home. This also shows that playing video games cause violence, but quite the opposite. Now speaking from personal experience, If I’m playing video games, I’m not thinking of how I am going to bully the school nerd, or shoot someone, I’m focused on the game and how to beat it. Me thinking of how to beat the game is preventing me from doing something else violent. It also means I’m sitting in the dark in my room, not out and about doing things to people that

First off, the type of video game does not matter in causing violence as much as the amount of time spent playing does. As stated in a study by the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, ”Those children who spend more time playing games might be slightly likelier to be hyperactive and to get into fights. But violent video games seem to have no effect on behavior, according to British researchers”. So videogames, both violent and non-violent, when played for too long, can lead to more aggression.In the same study, it’s stated that “The researchers found that the 22 kids who played video games the most each day were the likeliest to have behavioral problems, exhibit hyperactivity and have trouble academically, although the effects were "quite small in magnitude,” So, even though there were behavioral changes in

According to U.S. News, “video game sales are one of the biggest markets in the U.S. and with that juvenile crime rates have decreased.” Because of violent video games many teens and young adults are playing the games instead of going outside and committing crimes. According to BBC News, “the long term consequences of crime and actual violent behavior, there is no evidence linking violent video games with that. Violent video games are played by millions of people, and very few commit crimes connected to playing violent video

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

For many young people, violent video games that involve killing, harming, or stealing are a diverting activity that has them thinking strategically, but recent studies show that this violent game playing causes children to pick up on bad behavior. These video games increase hostility (along with anxiety and depression), teach kids wrong values, and train adolescents to take out their anger in aggression. This shouts out that role playing games with simulated violence are perilous for kids.

It is agreeable that there are some correlation between teenagers playing video games and how it affects the youth mentally. Heavy consumption of violence video games does indeed stimulate a change reaction in the brain waves, but there is no hard evidence stating that those changes causes teenagers to act aggressively and violently. On the contrary, it is a popular beliefs that violence video games does indeed causes teenagers to displayed unpleasant behaviors and actions because that is what they learned and observed from the games. Therefore, parents should limit and regulate the amount of time their teenagers are playing violence video games so that they can protect their children from negative behaviors.

Over the years violent video game sales have sky rocketed and there is no correlation with juvenile crime rates that suggest that those games cause more violence in society. In a recent article from ProCon the National Center for Education Statistics and Nicholas Lovell stated “The number of high school students who had been in at least one physical fight decreased from 43% in 1991 to 25% in 2013, and student reports of criminal victimization at school dropped by more than half from 1995 to 2011.” (1). This clearly shows that violent video games do not cause violence but actually caused it to decrease. Teenagers were no longer worrying about fighting in school, but were no worried about fighting on games instead which is

Video games have become a staple in the entertainment industry. Families coming from various backgrounds across the world own a video game system. Shooting games such as call of duty have become particularly popular amongst young teenagers. These types of games have led to a very popular debate. The question being do violent video games make children violent? Prosecutor Steven F. Gruel believes that they do cause children to become violent while defense attorney Patricia A. Millett argues that there is not enough evidence to prove this to be true.

In 2008, ninety-seven percent of twelve to seventeen year olds in the US played video games, this fueling a 11.7 billion dollars to the domestic video game industry. Also in 2008, ten out of twenty best-selling games in the United States involved violence. A majority of the research behind this topic is deeply flawed and says that there has been no relationship found between videogames and socially violent acts. They also

Video game makers have even advanced video games to give you the fell of using real weapons, also called virtual reality. There is a professor at the University of Missouri says that violent video games change behavior. First person shooter games help team players how to hurt people because first person shooter games are usually more realistic. Sixty percent sixth to eighth grade boys who play m-rated video games have hit or beat up somebody. Many people who have acted in mass shootings played violent video games. Violent video games have the tendency to lower people's empathy and they also lower people’s kindness. The APA says violent video games will risk the factor for aggression. When violent video games reward a player for violence, kids think violence is a good thing because they learn that you get rewards for committing violent acts. Sixty-seven percent of parents even agree that violent video games do lead to aggression.

In the United States, Ninety percent of adolescents between the ages of eight and sixteen play some sort of video game. They spend thirteen hours a week playing these games. According to CNN Health, if said adolescents are male that number is more than likely higher(Harding). The main question, however, is does the violence in these video games cause violent behaviours? Do prolonged hours to military like games cause adolescent youth to become and angry? Not at all. There have been many studies done to actually prove that violent video games have no effect on behavior.

Videogames have often been scrutinized by the general public as inducing violence in adolescents who play violent videogames. However, according to British researchers, “Those children who spend more time playing games might be slightly likelier to be hyperactive and to get into fights. But violent video games seem to have no effect on behavior”. (Dotinga) The reason that this has been disputed for so long is because there is no way to conclusively prove whether or not videogames do induce violence; there are too many variables such as age, gender, duration of play time, the degree of violence of the