Violence And Video Games

Submitted By ZazieCat
Words: 1534
Pages: 7
Open Document
Violence and Video Games
Trina Heyrman
Eng/225
April Rivers
June 14, 2014

Violence and Video Games When discussing all of the violent crimes that have happened in the United States over the past few years, there are several topics that keep getting thrown into the ring of discussion. One of the main topics, is the idea that playing violent video games will lead to children and adults being violent themselves, and make them more likely to commit acts of violence against themselves and others. There are many reasons violent video games do not themselves cause violent actions. As far back as the Columbine High School massacre, and even farther back, anti-video game proponents have blamed violent games for influencing people to commit violent crimes. In the case of Columbine, the perpetrators, Eric Harris, and Dylan Klebold, were fans of the popular video games, Doom, and Wolfenstein 3D. Both games are violent, shooter style games, where the player navigates mazes, shooting monsters and people who try to stop them from completing predetermined missions and beating the game. A psychologist who has spoken about this crime, Jerald Block, believed that the perpetrators’ immersion in video games caused them to feel most gratified while playing in a virtual world. (2007) Dr. Block takes the stance that “rather than being incited to violence by the violent gaming content they had a predilection for, killers Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris actually used their admittedly obsessional Doom fandom as a sanctuary from the real world and a way to funnel their real-life rage.” (Destructoid, 2007)

In the Aurora, Colorado theater killings, which happened during a screening of the film The Dark Knight Rises in 2012, games like Skyrim, and World of Warcraft were mentioned as games that James Holmes, the shooter, frequently played. This linked video games, in the minds of the masses, as a scapegoat, an easy culprit to blame and a reason for such horrible things to happen. When yet another massacre happened, this time in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, video games were blamed once again. The killer, Adam Lanza, played games like Call of Duty, and Starcraft. It was at this point that Senator Jay Rockefeller introduced a bill that called for a study on how video game violence affects children. “Recent court decisions demonstrate that some people still do not get it. They believe that violent video games are no more dangerous to young minds than classic literature or Saturday morning cartoons. Parents, pediatricians and psychologists know better. These court decisions show we need to do more and explore ways Congress can lay additional groundwork on this issue. This report will be a critical resource in this process.” (Jay Rockefeller, 2012)

There are other crimes blamed on video games, such as parents of a severely depressed teenager banning him from playing Halo 3, and locking his game up in their gun cabinet. The teen, Danny Petric, retaliated by gaining access to the gun cabinet, getting his game back, and shooting both of his parents. In all of these cases, while a common theme does happen to be that the perpetrators have played violent video games, another, more important theme is the fact that all of them were having mental problems. In studies done by several authorities, it has been shown that since 1996, while the number of video games that are sold has gone up more and more, violent crime offences have gone down significantly. An example of one such study is shown in this graph: (Theirer, 2009) This shows that as the sales of video games have gone up, the instances of violent crimes has gone down for the most part. Another study, this one done by Economist, shows that the total violent crime offences has gone down, again as the computer and video game sales have gone up, as is seen in this graph: (Economist, 2005)

The aforementioned Dr. Jerald Block stated this

“I think they [video games] can be helpful, in
Show More

Related Documents: Violence And Video Games

violence in video games Essay

Stephen Herbermann Criminology 100 Violence in Video Games Violence in video games is an issue that has been increasing in severity over the past several years and is having a negative impact on those who play them, and on society as a whole. With new developments in technology, video games are becoming more and more realistic, making the gamer feel like they are actually in the game itself. However, this increase in realism is beginning to blur the lines between what is…

Words 1015 - Pages 5

Video Game Violence Essay

Video Game Violence “ Guns require a finger to pull the trigger.”­ Rick Perry. For some people like Adam Lanza and Seung­Hui Cho it was just a mixture of things such as mental illness, fictional video games, and most likely family issues. Video games are not always the main source of the problem, it’s a combination of fantasy and the real world. To begin with is the fact that Adam Lanza is mentally ill with and has violent masculinity. Here the Huffington Post says this statement about Adam and many more “Adam…

Words 344 - Pages 2

Video Games and Violence Essay

goes on to say that the one thing these and other massacres had in common was that “they were video gamers who seemed to be acting out some dark digital fantasy.” Since the late 50s there have been a lot of studies and debates on whether video games have a negative effect. The debate grows even more relevant today due to the games being more realistic and violent. The article goes on to say that video games in the short term stir hostile urges and aggressive behavior. Christopher Bartlett, a psychologist…

Words 1128 - Pages 5

Video Game Violence Essay

11-4-13 Professor Lynch Video games in modern society “Video games are bad for you? That's what they said about rock-n-roll.” (Miyamoto) The future of entertainment completely relies on the evolution of technology. Video games are becoming more and more realistic leaving little for the imagination to decipher which is most likely a reason that video games are being blamed for youth violence. For most video game players, the violence portrayed in video games is ineffectual so the isolated…

Words 1472 - Pages 6

Showalter: Video Game Violence

Psych 101 Showalter Video Game Violence To begin, I have a strong belief against video games that include violence in them. I believe that if children become accustomed to seeing murders, crime, and death almost every day during a video game then it will numb the effect of real murders, crime and death in real life. It becomes a routine for many to go home and sit and play violent video games like murdering innocent victims is not a big deal. In my experiences I have seen my friends and family…

Words 1014 - Pages 5

Video Games and Violence Essays

Video Games and Violence Video games vary in the type of entertainment they provide, from educational purposes to extremely violent. Inevitably, with the large variety of games available, parents are facing the task of protecting their children from the more violent games that could have a negative impact on them. The debate over the evidence supporting the connection between video games violence and real world violence among experts is ongoing, however; both sides agree the parents play a pivotal…

Words 722 - Pages 3

Violence in Video Games Essay

with both negative and positive effects. Heated debates of whether video games have positive or harmful effects to those who play it more so young children and male adults have ensued. These debates have not been conclusive of whether video games have negative or positive effects on the gamers. Video games played from Playstation 3's, Xbox 360, laptops, and computers have made access to video games possible to the lovers of the game. Critiques, however, hold divergent views over the subject with those…

Words 1796 - Pages 8

The Effects Of Violence In Video Games

Effects of Violence in Video Games Video games are popular amongst people of all ages, gender, and cultural upbringing. As time moves on, video games become more realistic. The realism in these games make it seem as though the player is actually in the game committing violent acts, such as, fighting and killing. There have been many arguments throughout the media and people on whether or not violent video games will increase violent behavior in the player. Even though the video game industry is…

Words 912 - Pages 4

Video Game Violence Essay

Rosie Caporaso Period 4 1/28/13 VIDEO GAME VIOLENCE BANG BANG BANG, 3 shots are fired at my video game character. I ducked and avoided the third shot by a hair. I crawl to the trench to reload my M2 browning machine gun and check my surroundings. At the last second I see a grenade heading my way. I break away and jump into the tank beside me. BOOM a huge explosion rattles my ear drums. One of my comrades is about to get shot by the zombie. I raise the gun up, but its too late, he's blasted…

Words 822 - Pages 4

The Effects Of Violence In Video Games

Part 1: Introduction I have enjoyed playing video games, and competing with my brothers and friends since I was a little kid. Back then, my parents were never worried that the violence in video games such as Battlefield and Hitman had any negative impacts on my mental health, or caused any problems for me at school. I don’t consider myself a violent person, but I am expected to be aggressive when playing football. When I think of where my aggression comes from when playing football, I do…

Words 1586 - Pages 7