Why Video Games Don't Cause Violence | Teen Ink

Why Video Games Don't Cause Violence

February 27, 2014
By Hekde SILVER, Cannon Falls, Minnesota
Hekde SILVER, Cannon Falls, Minnesota
6 articles 0 photos 0 comments

I was in third grade that was a year I got started to hit people a lot more, than I ever did after getting into trouble all the time, I was a delinquent not used to being calm always letting rage control me, now I am in ninth grade and I never often hit anyone anymore at least on purpose, and I play violent video games. So if I hear that video games cause violence, I will say the word no. Video games don’t cause violence I think parents, and television do. Every day theres more and more proof that video games don’t cause violence, and every day someone sits on a chair or couch not killing real people, not grabbing a gun a actually shooting someone they just sit and let out any anger or stress and play video games. There are tons of research studies, a few court cases, and quite a few facts supporting the word no here and there.

There is a research study from 2007 (videogames.procon) that has reported that forty five percent of boys played video games to help with anger like this quote states “To help me get my anger out.” which does not cause violence but stops it. (videogames.procon) That same research study also reported that sixty two percent also played to help them “...relax.” There is another study from Texas A&M also says video games don’t cause violence instead they say, “We found that depressed mood and hanging around delinquents are more consistent risks for youth violence….” (gamepolitics). Some other pieces of research say that sometimes video games cause increased arousal and aggravation, although this does not mean a child will not leave home and commit a violent act. There was even a law presented by Hillary Clinton in 2005, to the 109th congress after the release of GTA San Andreas to stop the selling of Adult Only and Mature games to minors, this bill was not passed.

In 2005 California passed a law that made (18) and mature labeled games to be illegal to sell to minors, this then was brought to court, then brought to the U.S. Supreme Court, in which was ruled that the law violated free speech. This case was known as Brown v.s. Entertainment Merchants Association, there was also another case like this called Video Software Dealers Association v.s. Schwarzenegger. This case was about faulty research for preventing psychological or neurological harm, it was ruled by this statement, “ In sum the evidence supported by the state does not support the Legislature’s purported interest…Nearly all research is by correlation not causation….”. Both cases tried to remove the selling of mature games to minors and both were utter failures in the state of California. But most court cases rule in favor of video games either by being constitutional or because of flawed research.

In a book written by Lawrence Kutner, PhD, and Cheryl K. Olsen, called Grand Theft Childhood, they think that “ …the press says that video games make children significantly more violent in the real world: that children engage in the illegal, immoral, sexist and violent acts they see in some of these games-are not supported by current research at least in the simplest form….After all millions of children play these games, yet the world has not been reduced to chaos and anarchy.”. The opposition to video games are mostly over forty years old, while mostly those under forty years old play video games(The Economist). Most of the research against video games causing violence isn’t long-term research, it is short term but the longest of the research studies has only been a month long. But this isn’t the first time something that most young people enjoy that has been blamed for something bad happening, the same thing happened when radio, TV, and heavy metal came out all of which were called stupid or its gonna cause violence, all of that and yet nothing has happened about it. Research on media causing violence say that its more of the home environment and home situation.

So here’s the simplest answer that research, court cases, and facts have given an answer too, no video games don’t cause violence. In the times between 1995-2008 the juvenile violent crime arrest rate has gone dropped down 43.3% and juvenile murder rate dropped 71.9%, yet during this exact time video games sales quadrupled (videogames.procon.). Meaning either a lot of people older than 20 bought video games for themselves or more or likely more juveniles have been buying more video games. There are court cases, studies and facts that have good conclusive evidence that video games don’t cause violence, and have been proven as a thing that can’t be illegal in the U.S.. So if video games caused violence, why has the world not descended into the chaos and violence they promote?


The author's comments:
This does have research studies, facts, and court cases. This is not entirely my work.

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SlounTheKing said...
on Sep. 23 2015 at 7:37 am
SlounTheKing,
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A couple of grammar mistakes but it is good otherwise.