Video Game Violence Statistics

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.

In my most recent essay I wrote of the violence attributed to video games in light of various shootings and other tragedies that occurred in the past year or so. In this essay I argued that despite their violent content, video games are not completely to blame for acts of violence committed by children. Throughout this essay I tried to convince the reader by, first, establishing my own credibility with video games, then sharing my own experiences with violent games, and providing both empirical data and valuable insight from trusted sources.

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.

“According to data recently released by The NPD Group, in 2012, U.S. video game software sales reached $6.7 billion (174.8 million units) and computer game sales were $380 million (13.2 million units)” (Improving Economy). To many, the violent video game industry has turned all adolescents into mass murderers. However, they’re absolutely wrong. Very seldom do adolescents who play violent video games commit acts of violence, and the ones who do usually have a mental disorder. Instead of blaming the tragedies that occur on violent video games, the news media should explain to people that a large percentage of young males play violent video games, indicating that the two are uncorrelated. They should alternatively research other possible solutions to the crisis. In lieu of negatively affecting people’s lives, video games could potentially improve their lives!

The first body of evidence that supports the claim that video games do not cause violence in reality is that “almost all boys and most girls play video and computer games, including games with violent content” (Olsen, Kutner, and Warner 56). This would suggest that if all children play violent video games and video games did in fact cause children to act violently, then all children would be violent. As absurd as this suggestion is, when the claim came

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.

Numerous studies have been done, showing no direct correlation between video games and actual violence. “The US Secret Service conducted a review in 2004 aimed at identifying causes of school shootings, and it found just 12 percent of studied attackers -- that's 5 out of 41 -- expressed an interest in violent video games”(Conditt, 2018, para 6). It was found that video games actually decrease violence in the real world. There was an economic study conducted in 2016 that found, ¨a reduction in crime in the weeks after major video game releases¨ (Conditt, 2018, para 7). This is because the video games give people an outlet to release violent thoughts and frustrations in a safer, virtual environment. In fact, video games actually decrease violence on the

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

There is much controversy about violent video games being a cause of violent crimes. Violent video games are not directly responsible for increasing the quantity of violent crimes performed by youth. How children are raised around technology, reports on how Violent video games are taking off while crime rate is plummeting, and the flaws in the reports that claim violent video games increase the violence of the youth prove that violent video games are not a factor for the cause of violent crimes.

The issue of video game violence seems to be a hot topic right now after several shootings have occurred and made a connection to the shooters being video gamers. In looking at past research it is apparent that there seems to large amounts of research that contradict one work to another. Although I would have been interested in conducting a poll of the publics opinion regarding the use of violent video games and their connection to mass shootings I was not able to conduct the research. However, for this paper I chose to conduct a literature analysis to see what research has been conducted and to seek out gaps and themes in this research.

In today’s society the entertainment industry is being attacked from many angles. Television is being criticized by showing images of violence and aggression, music is being ridiculed for explicit lyrics, and within the last decade the issue of videogame violence and children has come to the attention of the mass media. The media, politicians, and many parents are blaming videogames for violent acts among children and those less than 18 years of age. But could videogames be the sole cause of violent crimes among children? In the fall of 2005 I took a course here at Coker called Videogames – Analysis and Research. The most popular topic discussed in our class was Violence and Aggression as a result of Violent Videogames. We studied

Video games don't make kids violent. First, There has been less arrest rates. In the article it states that the arrest rates are 38% below the 1980s. Most attacks aren't caused by violent video games. Con 4 it states that the 41 attackers they studied was 27% from movies, 24% from books, 37% from their own writings, and 12 from violent video games. People who play video games play them to release stress and anger. 61.9% of boys played to help them relax, 47.8% because it helps them forget their problems, and 45.5% to release stress or anger. Video games do not make you as

The advancement of media is one of the greatest accomplishments of our time, helping spread news globally at incredible speed; however, the media may not always prove such an unbiased or well-informed view on everything. Video games seem to be one topic the media tends to have a highly bias opinion against. The media tends to emphasis the connection of teenagers who commit crimes with playing violent video games yet, violent video games are highly played throughout the world. Ferguson, author of “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Over the years, the popularity of computer and video games has grown. Specifically violent video games make up more than 50 % of the top selling games. These games include violent themes that involve guns, crime, blood, and gore. There is an ongoing belief that these types of games are to blame for the many acts of violence in society and have encouraged America’s youth to act out in aggression. Several organizations, such as the PTC (Parents Television Council) have moved to discourage the development of violent games while also pushing for stronger regulations when purchasing such games. There is also debate among parents and concerns on how games can negatively influence their children. So is there a direct link between video games and violence? The truth is video games do not encourage violence in society based on several factors which include scientific studies, statistics on crime, and prevention measures adopted by game publishers.

Video games, Movies, music videos, and tv shows, more or less, have all been used as either as either a starting point or a scapegoat in media to entice news and controversy among the populace. It's been used as a claim to incite violence in children, causing them to act out and interpret what they are viewing on their tv screens. Video games causing real-life violence is a matter of debate that has been tossed back and forth since it's inception, but which side is right? Given the science and functionality of the human brain, Video games do not cause violence or misbehavior in youth but instead, help boost mood and general mental, actually help stop and reduce the violent crime rate and when involved, is only used as an excuse for the