Do Violent Video Games Influence Youth Violence
Noel Averruz
EN1420
ITT-Technical Institute
Ever Since Violent Video Games were invented People have been trying to prove that they influence Violence in Juveniles. Although many prospective studies have been done on video game violence and the affect they have on the youth, none have been able to completely validate the claim that violent video games do influence the youth to become violent in their everyday lives.
Out of the many studies that have been done to examined video game violence and the influences it has on player aggression none of the results necessarily tap well into serious aggression or violence. One of these studies was performed by Dr. Ferguson who recruited 302
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Violent video games can provide a safe and healthy opportunity for youth to explore rules and consequences to violent actions and may allow youth to virtually explore war and death without any real world consequences. ProCon.org (2014). In conclusion, youth might model violent acts on what they have seen in video games, but the violence would still occur in the absence of video games. Dr. Ferguson States “Depressive symptoms stand out as particularly strong predictors of youth violence and aggression, and therefore current levels of depression may be a key variable of interest in the prevention of serious aggression in youth. Current studies find no evidence to support a long-term relationship between video game violence use and subsequent aggression. Even though the debate over violent video games and youth violence will continue, it must do so with restraint.” ScienceDaily.com, Ferguson CJ (2010),
Ferguson, C. (2010, December 14). Video Games and Youth Violence: A Prospective Analysis in Adolescents.
The potential influence of violent video games on youth violence remains an issue of concern for psychologists, policymakers and the general public. Although several prospective studies of video game violence effects have been conducted, none have employed well validated measures of youth violence, nor considered video game violence effects in context with other influences on youth violence such as family environment, peer delinquency, and depressive
The main argument of this article is that video games have a direct link to short term and long term aggression. The author presents this argument by providing studies from peer reviewed articles that all conclude that video games do cause an increase of aggression. The main point of this article is to answer the question, “Do violent video games lead to aggression.” The article is about the effects of violent video games leading to aggression. The author uses recent examples, like the Sandy Hook and Washington Navy Yard shooting. In both of these examples, the author cites that both shooters had a history with playing violent video games. The author uses a study which selected individuals to play violent video games for a certain period of time. The study would then compare the results to a group who played non-violent video games. The study concluded that violent video games cause a direct link in aggression due to humans reenacting the actions the characters within the video games perform.
“Approximately 90 percent of kids in the U.S. play video games, and more than 90 percent of those games involve mature content that includes violence.”-(Time Health). The link between violent media and aggression in video games has also created a spawn of research studies that has gone back and forth on the issue of whether
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
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.
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.
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.
The debate of whether violent video games cause our youth to become increasingly violent to each other is getting more complicated as time goes on. Games are readily available to all ages and come to us in various shapes and forms. Our youth is exposed to all kinds of material with the evolution of games and how they are portrayed to the youth. Video games have desensitized our youth, they have given them justification to some of their actions, and have pushed some to commit atrocities against mankind. Video games do promote violence to our youth but at what cost?
Through extensive exposure to violent video games, adolescents are subjected to many psychological issues. After playing these video games, gamers typically exhibit more aggressive behaviour than they would have had they not played the game. Well known studies have been conducted by Craig Anderson alongside his colleagues, analyzing how violent video games can increase the aggressive behaviour of an individual. Three experimental studies, a correlational study, and meta-analysis
Violence in video games does not cause kids to be violent because a majority of kids already play games that contain violence. Most games now days contain violence whether it be mild violence or intense violence with blood and gore. Federal crime statistics present that “the rate of juvenile violent crimes in the United States is at a 30-year low…people serving time for violent crimes typically consume less media before committing their crimes than the average person in general populations”(“Do Violent Video Games
Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty and Halo are all video games that most would consider being violent. Whether it is stealing cars or shooting down the enemy it can clearly be seen that the characters in these video games are not setting the best example for the people who play these games. This leads many to wonder if these violent video games can alter the way that people view things as right and wrong. Does playing more violent video games cause one to act more violently than someone who does not? Even though many of the violent video games out there say that they are for mature audiences that does not stop parents from buying these violent games for their children and adolescents. This leads to many people in the scientific community to look at whether violent games can lead to an increased amount of aggression in children and adolescents.
The earliest video game was invented in 1940, where the first patent was designed to win against players trying to avoid picking up the final matchstick. From then on, the progress of videogames has grown to a magnificent feat. In this day and age, the common recreational activity for most people are the use of playing video games. With different variations used to enjoy video games, everyone is able to amuse himself with video games that are not limited to any set time of enjoyment. Video games are generally used to relieve stress or just for their own leisure. The steady stream of video game consumers has branched off onto different sorts of games for their consumers, and most concerningly the genre of violent video games. With the increase of violent video game usage within the youth and the increase in the violence and aggression in these youth, it is a wonder among many concerned parents if these two are correlated with one another. The concern is, “Do violent video games contribute to youth violence?”. While not widely discussed, there is a sufficient amount of evidence that proves that the use of violent video games do contribute to the increase of youth violence and aggression. Many of these gamers prefer playing violent video games due to the adrenaline and dopamine released playing a highly intense game. From the recent rise of violence and exposure towards these video games, there is sufficient evidence to prove that violent video games contribute to youth
Since violent video games have become very popular, the effect of these violent video games on aggression is a very relevant issue. As stated in an article written by Paul Adachi, “…31% percent of adolescents play video games every day…” and “… five of the 10 most frequently played games are violent” proving that many American adolescent partake in violent action that should not be experienced at such a young age (Paul Adachi). Lynch, Gentile,
With the amount of violent video games saturating the market it is difficult for parental figures to monitor their children’s consumption. Many children these days play violent video games constantly. We have access to video games on our home consoles, computers, televisions, smartphones, and tablets. Today it is easier than ever for a child to download a violent game over the internet and have access to it anywhere. Many families seem to be uninformed about the affects video game violence may have on their children.
Video games have been around for years and have become increasingly more popular with today’s youth however, most people may think that video games are just games that children all over the world engage in but, what about violent video games? The amount of video games, especially violent games that children and teens are investing most of their free time has grown exponentially. This fact has led to many psychologists wondering whether or not violent video games are on the same wavelength as aggressive behavior. Furthermore, in 2010 a California law was calling for restrictions on video game sales to minors and psychologists Steven Gruel and Patricia Millett debated if violent video games had a correlation with aggression before the Supreme Court. In order to back up their evidence, their argument they used psychological and neuroscience research, both of which are prevalent in their field of psychology.
Research has been conducted to determine if violent video games cause increases in aggressive behavior in children and adolescents. This issue relates to anyone that has children, as well as anyone who plans to have children in the future. With the rate at which the video game industry is growing, there is no doubt that current children, and future children, will eventually come into contact with violent video games. It is important to be informed of the effects, if any, on exposure to violence in video games.