Introduction While the rate of crime in the United States has decreased overall an increase in senseless violence being committed by young people leaves individuals trying to understand what is to blame. “It is encouraging that the rate of crimes of violence in the United States has dropped about 15 percent since 1999. However, self-reported violent offending by American youth has not declined.” (Funk et al. 1) Work place violence, road rage disputes and mass school shootings are just a few examples of violence that has become common place in society. Adolescent perpetrating violent crimes has been on the rise as is evident with the number of shootings and physical altercations in recent years. Many have tried to identify what is causing this increase in violence among children. The growing problem of violence and aggressive behavior in society is speculated to be credited in part to the rise of violent video games.
Background
Over the past few decades the average person’s daily routine has changed drastically through the rapid development and advancements in technology. Most people living today can remember a time when not every person had a cell phone and smartphones sounded more like science fiction than a reality. As technology has made advancements the world of entertainment and the way people spend their free time has changed. One sector that has seen drastic improvements is that of the world of video games. The interaction levels, intricacies, complexity and
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.
“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!
Discussion 1 B: Netiquette is a term many of you many may not have heard of. Take some time and look it up, “google it”. You may be surprised. Then click on the link below and read the 10 rule of Netiquette. Write about your thoughts on Netiquette. Have you been guilty of violating one of the rules? Will you change the way you interact online because of this, why or why not?
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
So how is it that it is the fault of video game violence that makes juveniles violent? As much as media coverage will have people think the “wave of violence gripping America’s youth” (Grossman), the truth is violent attacks in America’s schools are “extremely rare events. The odds that a child will die in school through murder or suicide are less than one in one million” (Olson). Increase in news reports about crime just end up raising viewers’ perception of risk, whether or not there is actual danger (Olson).
Savage and Yancey had noticed that while there had been numerous studies on whether video games increase aggression to their peers, no one had tested whether or not they affected criminal tendencies in teens and young adults. After exposing them to a violent television show, the kids were made to take a test to see if violent tendencies were displayed later. Once it was all said and done the results pointed to there not being any correlation with criminality and violent media consummation. (Savage, Yancey 16-17)
The number of school shootings by teenagers causes researchers great concern. Researchers wonder if there is a correlation between the increased numbers in young adolescents playing video games containing violence, and the increased numbers of teenage school shootings. Brad Bushman believes there is a correlation between “video game violence and violence” (2013, p. 376) To explore the correlation, one must first understand the definition of aggression. Eden and Eshet-Alkalai use Anderson and Bushman’s (2003) definition: “who define aggression as a behavior that is directed toward another person (either virtually or physically) in a purpose of causing harm” (2014, p. 451). According to Eden and Eshet-Alkalai: “in their study of aggression, Little, Henrich, Jones, and Hawley, (2003) claim that the most common types of aggression among children and adolescents are Extrovert Aggression, in which a child attacks another child, either physically or verbally, and Interpersonal Aggression, in which a child or group of children attempt to harm the relations between other children…” (2014, p. 451). Olson et al. claim that, “For studies to be useful for policy, aggression must be clearly defined and validly measured with a focus on practical (not just statistical) significance” (2009, p. 189). Once the definition of aggression is established, researchers can evaluate the risk factors, exposure to violence in video games, the length of the exposure, and other environmental factors, of
Are violent video games directly correlated to teen violence? This is the burning question many researchers are dedicated to answering. The common form of the question is “Is the increase in violence in games creating killer kids?” The simple answer is no. Instead the opposite has occurred, as games became more violent, the players became calmer. The games create a “safe” outlet for any anger or angst that young people possess. Crime rates in the teen population have lowered and violent teens admit to having little to no interest in violent video games. The games that most people fear are destroying the youth may actually be one of the things helping them grow and become “normal” members in society.
Video games have come a long way since the days of Pong. Advances in technology have allowed games to present state of the art graphics and surreal like qualities to its consumers; from four star simulated battle scenes to enhanced real live fire shoot outs. With all these innovations added to violent video games it attracted the visual needs of our teenage youth. Although video game violence has been blamed for high profile school shootings, video games and its creators should not be held accountable for these tragedies because there is not enough credible evidence to absolutely link video games to outburst of violence amongst juveniles.
Do violent video games make people more violent in public and in general? Studies done by “Bureau of Justice Statistics; Entertainment Software Association’’ states that total violent crime is going down as computer and video game sales are going up. Some people think violent video games are the cause of school shootings and other violent crimes. As many as 97% of kids ages 12-17 play video games (contributing to the $21.53 BILLION domestic video game industry). More than half of the 50-top selling video games contain violence.
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
Teen violence is a term used to define collective behaviors by teenagers that are not acceptable by the society. These behaviors range from slapping, bullying, hitting, assault and even armed robbery. Teen violence has been affecting many societies and has destructive history to communities. Although many factors have been pointed out to cause teen violence, studies show that modeling behaviors are the most common causes of teen violence in the society. These include behaviors as seen in the movies, on the streets, on the video games and at home. Social engineering factors and psychology behind teen violence are some of the main challenges contributing to teen violence. Video games, in particular, have caused the prevalence
With the popularity and production of video games constantly rising since the mid 90s, you would also imagine that the violent and illegal acts in teens would have also risen, but that is not the case. In fact, violent acts in youth have steadily decreased during the past 20 years, and are projected to continue to fall. While there could be many reasons for this drop in violence, the most likely one is that the inclusion of violence in video games actually provides an outlet for frustrated and angry teens to safely discharge their anger in the digital world, and not upon anyone in the real world. Video games offer an area in which your mind can explore and wander with no fear of consequences, so in
Violence in schools has spread rapidly throughout the nation and has caused many difficulties and fear among students, families, teachers and staff, and residents of the areas afflicted by the crimes. Many believe that school violence is only very recent occurrence, but this is untrue. It is easy for people to forget that there was life before the internet and many crimes were not publicly known as they are today. The speed in which the internet and cable television spread news is astronomical compared to decades, or centuries past. That is how long violence has been occurring in public and private schools ranging from elementary schools to colleges, Amish school houses to elite universities. It would seem that many rewrite, or edit history to better suit their beliefs, or political aspirations of the present. People spend quite a bit of time trying to pin modern influences as the cause of violence in today’s youth, yet one can find documented incidents of immense violent behavior in adolescents far before the creation of Grand Theft Auto and Breaking Bad. It may be more prudent to look closer at the advancing development and availability of automatic and semi-automatic weapons, bullying, and the increase of psychotic behavior that is untreated and ignored. This essay will show that school violence is not the direct result of violent video games or the internet and that they have been occurring for centuries and that the likely true
From a scientific standpoint, however, defined causes for youth violence simply have not been found. In fact, a study of youth violence held in 2014, focusing around candid conversation with youths between the ages 14 and 22 who had been involved in violent behavior and fights about the causes of youth violence, found “...no predominant cause of violence emerged from the discussion” (Cheng, et al. 288). Simply put, evidence pointing out any primary cause of youth violence does not exist. With mental illness, poor lifestyle choices, hostile environments, ineffective parenting, and peer pressure all playing roles, one must consider whether violent media and entertainment are primary causes of youth violence. Even if sufficient evidence existed to prove violent media was a significant factor in causing youth violence, one cannot claim that it causes more youth violence than other