Answering Do Violent Video Games Cause Behavior Problems
Video games have been accused of being a factor in why people commit crime. The aim of the paper consist in the question do violent video games cause behavior problems essay. Violent video games such as Grand Theft Auto have been linked to causing aggression. This is because these types of games contain graphic images which is seen to promote violence.
Video games are becoming increasingly popular. Gentile says that more than 90% of American youths play video games that are E10 rated, teen rated, or mature rated which contains pictures of violence. Research done by Ferguson et al. shows that violent video games cause aggressive behaviour through a social learning paradigm. This is when you learn from watching other people’s behaviour and adapt your own to fit. Researchers who examine video games to show video games cause aggression use the general aggression model (GAM). Ferguson et al. says that according to GAM, violent video games cause the formation of aggressive cognitive scripts. This displays how people should behave based on the social setting that they are in. The more violent stimuli a person is exposed to, the more aggressive scripts are generated, which are then activated when confronted with potentially harmful stimuli. This shows that those who are exposed to violent video games will engage in more violent behaviour regardless of personal background.
Video games causing violent aggression is backed up by the case of Devin Moore. Devin Moore was arrested in possession of a stolen vehicle and shot and killed two policemen and a dispatcher. During the trial the defence team claimed that Moore had been inspired by the violent video game Grand Theft Auto. This is because Moore said to police officers that “Life is a video game. Everyone’s got to die sometime”. This shows that playing video games causes aggression. However, research has found no consistent link between video games and acts of violence like school shootings. One probable explanation used is that there is a stereotype that racial minorities are associated with violent crime. This means that when a white offender commits a violent crime people may look for an explanation such as violent video games. Whereas when a racial minority commits a crime people won’t seek to look for a reason because the perpetrators ethnicity matches their image of a violent criminal. This shows that although video games have in the past influenced people to commit violent offences there isn’t a constant trend of this happening because of violent video games.
It can also be said that violent video games do not cause aggressive behaviours. Campbell found that when violent shooting game sales peak, crime numbers drop. This is because people are staying inside and not going out to cause trouble.
People who play video games should be able to tell the difference between virtual violence within an online game and suitable behaviour in real life. They give people the chance to explore the ramifications of aggressive behaviour and to establish their moral compass in a virtual environment. It’s known that it allows players to vent their frustrations and rage in the game, resulting in a reduced level of violence. This is backed up by the fact that 61.9% of boys use video games to help them relax, 47.8% play video games to help them forgot about problems they have, and 45.4% play them because it helps them release anger that they have pent up.
Restrepo states that in the first seven months of 2019 there were 22 school shootings where someone had either been killed or injured. Video games had been to blame for the cause of a lot of these shootings, despite research proving otherwise. However, the article states that the US secret service examined incidents of targeted school violence between 1974 and 2000. They found that “Of the 41 attackers studied none were found to have a relationship between playing violent video games and the school shootings. This shows that video games cannot be the go-to cause for why people commit such violent offences.
Other factors have been seen to have a bigger influence on people causing violence. Fagan talks about the real root causes of crime. He states that the growth in violent crime has paralleled the rise in families abandoned by dad’s during the last 30 years. This could be due to them acting out as a coping mechanism. This is backed up by The Fatherless Generation which states that 70% of youths in state operated institutions come from fatherless homes. This shows that there are more important factors than violent video games that lead to violent behaviour.
Overall, although some evidence does point towards video games causing violent tendencies there is more evidence to suggest that other factors are the causes of crime. Blaming video games for causing aggression distracts the government from tackling the real causes of violent crime
