Violent Video Games Cause Violence

In the year 2016, more than 10 million copies of Grand Theft Auto were sold. Grand Theft Auto, among other video games focus on illegal crimes. For example Grand Theft Auto, frequently makes references to drugs, murder, and robbery. Even though video games are much more violent than they were in the 1990’s, video games over the years have managed to make an impact on American culture. Some ask why violent video games are such a concern for America? Well according to Times Magazine,“The average U.S. gamer age 13 or older spent 6.3 hours a week playing video games during 2013.” With people becoming addicted to video games, others begin to worry if videogamers will start to blur the line between the virtual world and reality. In the book Columbine, the author David Cullen states media reporters, partially blamed video games for the Columbine Massacre. “When he was eleven, id Software released the video game Doom. Eric found the perfect virtual playground to explore his fantasies.” (Cullen,114) The shooters Dylan, and Eric before the Columbine Massacre fantasised about murder, and in the video games they played they were allowed to be killers. Although, media reporters stated that videogames, were a reason the Columbine Massacre occurred, David Cullen addresses that video games had nothing to do with the shooting. Although, video games had no effect on the Columbine Massacre, other shootings such as Sandy Hook has been linked to them. As video games grow in popularity and

A secure link between violent video games and violent behaviors has not yet been proven. Studies have shown numerous design flaws and have used unreliable sources such as noise blast tests to test their theory. Aforementioned only one-eighth of attackers have exhibited interests in video games. A report has not yet been proven to link violent video games with violent behaviors in school shootings but show that behavioral problems come from violent movies and other resources.

“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 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.

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

Americans have been blaming violent forms of entertainment since colonial times. From dime novels to music, to movies to television shows. The most recent medium are video games. Aided by crime-saturated news reports, a lot of people are convinced that video game violence transfers to real-life youth crimes like the school massacres. They think that violent video games make people violent, but that is not the case. Violent people play violent video games. Not everyone who plays video games are violent, but those who already are violent will play them as an outlet for their frustration and rage. If anything, video games keep violent people from going out and killing people in real life because they can vent in the virtual world.

The popularity of violent video games is rapidly increasing, but abundant evidence suggests that, “playing violent video games [diminish] the player's perception of their own humanity” (Greitemeyer 499). Violence in video games has become increasingly popular throughout the years, as gun related murders have also increased in the United States, according to the data table in “Do Games like ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ Cause Real-World Violence?”. Some might say violent video games are a positive part of people’s lives because they keep criminals off the streets, but that is not the case. People should not be playing violent video games because it causes people to act out in aggressive ways and further, violent video games are directly linked to criminal

Violent video games do not cause mass shootings. There are over 150 million Americans who play video games today. There may seem like there are a lot of crimes, but compared to the amount of kids playing violent video games, the number is minuscule. From 1982 to 2016, there has been 71 major mass shootings. Out of those 71 shootings, only 10% were teenagers (“Journal of Adolescent Health”). A study from Psychiatric Quarterly found that violent video games have absolutely no impact on the tempers in people 18 and under.

As many as 97% of US kids age 12-17 play video games, contributing to the $21.53 billion domestic video game industry. More than 50% of games have violence. (Procon.org) Video games that have violence have been blamed to have caused bullying, mass shootings, and violence towards women. (Procon.org) An estimated four out of five US households with a male child own a video game system and worldwide series of video games are predicted to reach $102.9 billion in 2017. (Procon.org) Critics argue that these games desensitize players to violence and it rewards players for simulating violence . (Procon.org)

Guns. Blood. Death. Three of the most prominent words or actions used to describe video games. Arum Steinbeck wakes up, goes to school, comes home and plays video games. His face glued to the television, he is exposed to gruesome acts of violence. Nonetheless, Arum Steinbeck is not a serial killer. How is this possible? Adolescents who play video games are killers. Dead wrong. 90% of children in the US play video games and 90% of those children play games that involved mature content. Yet, it is possible that not one of these children will grow up to commit serious acts of violence. For most of the children who do end up committing crimes other factors are involved in the equation nonetheless, society tends to blame what they cannot explain. It is easier to blame video games than to accept responsibility for our actions. To put a seranio to words say there is an adolescent drunk driver who gets into a car accident and kills a family. When in court the intoxicated driver will plead not guilty putting the blame on anyone besides themselves. We have fingers to point them. People get in trouble with the law and need a way out, society has made videogame companies a revolving door of allegations that a court of law should find the person rather than the fictional game responsible. In summary, violent video games do not cause real life violence, though some people seems to wish it did.

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

Contrary to popular belief, violent video games may not play into violent crimes as much as you may think. Many people think that violent video games might be the main reason that violent crimes like mass shootings and murders happen. Another factor that they bring into the argument is that video games isolate the players from the rest of society and makes them become antisocial. Groups are trying to ban video games due to these reason. Being somebody who plays violent video games, especially first person shooters, I do not see this the same way as others do. I see these games as ways to pass my free time, have fun playing with friends, and to meet new people from all over. I believe that people blame these harmless games due to a lack of investigation into the offenders past where they don’t see prior problems and they want to just blame it on an inanimate object rather than the person at fault. This could also be because of a lack of investigation of the benefits that video games bring also. I’m writing this to bring awareness to the benefits of games rather than what people have heard from other sources of media.

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.

The link between videogames and crime have a very suspicious relationship and the tie between these two different things are even more weirder. This all started when sceptics traced the Columbine massacre to the most important violent video game ever released the ancestor to games like COD or GTA or any game that has blood, guns, and violence.This game is called “Doom”. Doom’s premise is the player killing demons but the thing is that sceptics are just sceptics no facts to back it up. The only “fact” they had is that the killers in the massacre were fans of Doom, that's it, and on top of that, this massacre was in 1999, and now it’s almost been 2 decades. Those 2 measly decades were when violent video games really started to rise, and statistics show that fewer crimes have occurred since. Scientists in 2010 conducted a research and estimated that in 1990, crimes in the U.S were almost 2 million while video games had a low 2 billion in revenue. Around 2005-

Video games have always been a controversial type of entertainment, that may come from how relatively new video games are compared to other mediums of entertainment[1]. Maybe because of that when a violent crime occurs and the culprit has played a lot of games the media is quick to point at violent games as the reason for the crime, but is that true or are the media just biased or looking for quick views, this report aims to answer that question.