...Does Video Game Violence Contribute to Youth crime Contribution towards Video game violence has been the biggest thing in youth crime since 1995. Crime rates are said to have risen and are blaming it upon violence video games such as those rated M for Mature or higher. Others have charted that crime rates dropped due to violent games which is quite right since there are other crimes far more worse then what is done in games. Scans have shown that video games teach youth that violence is acceptable to solve conflicts. When you’re exposed to violence day in and out, it loses its emotional impact on you, once you’re emotionally numb to violence; it’s much easier to engage in violence. Violent games desensitizing players making them more aggressive towards others which increase bullying in schools. It also promotes violence against woman, which we see a lot in today’s society. In 1998 a study founded that 21% of video games involved violence against woman. The number of games with violence against women has increased dramatically since then. Exposure to sexual violence in video games is linked to increases in violence towards women. These games also give kids the idea that the way women dress or act cause them to be assaulted and that it is their fault this violence occurs against them. While many claim to believe crime rates are caused by violent video games, juvenile crimes in the U.S declined as the popularity for violent video games have increased. Between 1995 and 2009...
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...essay (1,265) Internet is a fast developing technology and the popularity of video gaming had been growing in recent years as well. Many people or institutions therefore investigate the negative impacts of video gaming. Since video games often include violence or aggressive language, people often think that video games lead to violent crime such as robbing, bullying and so on. However, Video games do not have direct impact on teenagers’ criminal behaviour because it is not proven that it leads to any criminal activities. This essay will examine the relationship between video games and teenagers’ aggressive behaviour and argue that video games do not assist to any criminal activities. Furthermore, video games also influence teenagers in a positive way. In recent years, many researchers found that teenagers tent to be more violent in behaviour after playing video games which might lead to crime for instance. Bösche (2010) states that video games lead to both aggressive behaviours and positive cognitions simultaneously. One of the positive effects of video games is securing players' attention and it can be implemented in education. Ferguson (2010) suggests that the violence and excitement of video games can draw players' attention easily, therefore video games can be used as a medium for spreading positive information. For example, educational tasks can be included in a first-person shooter game which appears to be a life saving mission. Besides conveying the importance of life...
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...Daniyar Sarzhanov Lacie Meier ENC 1102 5 April 2015 Are Violent Video Games Killing Children? It is a misconception that video games make people violent. One might not usually think of the positive sides of playing video games. However, many examples prove that video games can be beneficial. A lot of people are led to believe that video games make people violent and cause crimes. Even though millions of people are playing violent video games, mass killings are still a statistical anomaly. Politicians and the media utilize the controversy of violent video games for their own interests rather than those of the public. Video games are a form of creative expression and should not be demonized or used as a scapegoat for our population’s deeper mental traumas. Video games have positive effects. A study conducted by Shawn Green & Daphne Bavelier from Center Visual Science, University of Rochester, show that people who play a lot of action video games benefit from improved “hand-eye coordination and visuo-motor skills, such as resistance to distraction, sensitivity to information in the peripheral vision and ability to count briefly presented objects, than non-players” (“Action video game modifies visual selective attention”). Video games that incorporate advanced motion detection, such as Microsoft’s Kinect or Sony’s PlayStation Move, provide both physical and mental exercise. Furthermore, a study conducted by Doctor Cheryl K. Olson, co-director of the Center for Mental Health...
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...The Misconception of Juvenile Video Game Violence The Misconception of Youth Video Game Violence A teen walks into a school with loaded weapon in hand. A young boy steals a vehicle and drives recklessly causing severe harm to others. A young girl sets her house on fire with family members inside. What do these seemingly uncommon crimes have in common? Each juvenile in these examples has played violent video games. Our media that covers these violent crimes is quick to make that point known. Often times they also erroneously blame the playing of violent video games as the root cause of these crimes. Research suggests that violence in video games does not contribute to violence in today’s youth because juvenile crimes have declined as video game popularity has increased; they in fact provide an outlet to express aggression without causing physical harm, and juvenile violence has been more commonly linked to exposure of family violence. When looking at research from the FBI, crime rates involving juveniles over the past 30 years have declined. In fact, in most violent crime categories the crime rate among our youth is at an all-time low (Butts, J. 2013). At first, this information may be hard to believe. It shouldn’t however, because violence among youth commonly ends up making headline national news. For this reason, we end up being exposed to the details on many of these youth related violent crimes. This can make it difficult to put actual facts into...
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...has the ability to connect people around the world. While gaming is purely a hobby for certain people, there are others that only focus on its negativities. As game stations have become amazingly advanced in the last few years, so do their games. Games have amazingly transformed from 2-dimensional images to now complicated concept. Recently, the topic for most of these newly developed games have focused strongly on violence, which is stirring up a commotion about whether this increase in violence is reflected in individual’s aggressiveness. Even though several studies have been made about this growing problem, these studies only prove certain cases are true while most would neglect other important factors like the backgrounds, personalities and interactions of these candidates with other people. While it is true that most games are focusing too much on violence, there are legitimate sources that prove video games are not the reason behind individual’s aggressiveness. Game Revolution's Duke Ferris did a hefty bit of research, foraging through countless studies about violence and video games, reading a number of charts and graphs from the Department of Justice, and has come up with this conclusion: the era of kids who grew up with video games (from about 1993 and after) has the least amount of violent crime rates ever recorded (Ross Miller 1) The world of gaming was introduced in the 1970s purely as a new method for entertainment and profit. It has now become one of...
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...Violent Video Games and Young People. (2010). Harvard Mental Health Letter, 27(4), 1-3. With the number of video games out there, I am finding that the majority of them have some level of violence within the game playing. Some concerns about the violent video games are that the child becomes fully engrossed in the game and its characters. The child is the one making the decisions to inflict violent or aggressive behavior. An opposing view is the popularity of these types of violent video games versus the actual crime rates. The popularity of the games is increasing whereas the violent crime rate is decreasing. If the games caused aggressive behavior, wouldn’t the crime rate be going up as well? Edwards, S. (2010). Game Plan. On The Brain, 16(3). 3-4. Retrieved from http://hms.harvard.edu/public/news/2011/013111_bickham_olson/index .html Controversy over violent video games dates back even further than most people are aware of and it seems that we still have the same questions. First, if I let my child be exposed to or even play violent video games, will they start showing signs of aggression? Second, are video games beneficial because they teach cognitive learning skills? While a child plays any video game they are using and improving their hand-eye coordination in addition to planning skills that will help with childhood development. Finally, does the duration of playing violent video games make an overall difference? Hastings, E. C., Karas, T. L., Winsler, A., Way, E...
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...brought up against those who enjoy the appeal of video games are that the violent games contribute to violence in society. The stereotype is that by playing so many violent games, especially now with so many games with more realistic graphics and more blood and gore that it is influencing the many that play these games into becoming violent people, violent people such as murderers,...
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...Video Games and Aggression in Children Video Games and Aggression in Children Video games cause violence and aggression in children. This is a popular misconception that many people share. The fact is, according to federal crime statistics, the rate of juvenile violent crime in the United States is at a thirty year low (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2010). This comes at a time when video games are more popular, more violent and more realistic than ever before. The idea that video games expose our youth to a level of violence that will in turn lead to aggression and violence is simply false. Many people believe there are more likely causes of aggression and that video games are merely a scapegoat. I will argue that playing video games can actually have a positive effect on children, and that environment, personality, and lack of parental involvement are responsible for violence and aggression in our nation’s youth. In today’s world there are numerous reports on television and in newspapers and magazines about video games causing aggression and violence in children. Numerous politicians and watchdog groups claim that video games are leading our children down a dangerous path. This is entirely untrue. Since the early 1990s, video games have exploded in popularity. Conversely, in that same time period, violent crime rates in the United States and Canada have plummeted (Ferguson, 2008). Christopher Ferguson, a licensed psychologist and professor who researches...
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...dissemination of moral indignation, even when they do not appear to be consciously engaged in crusading or muckraking. Simply reporting the facts can be enough to generate concern, anxiety, or panic.[4]:16 Examples include the belief in widespread abduction of children by predatory pedophiles,[5] belief in ritual abuse by satanic cults of women and children,[6] scaremongering of the spread of AIDS,[7] and the War on Drugs.[8] Contents [hide] 1 Use as a social science term 1.1 British vs American 2 Characteristics 3 Examples 3.1 2000s: Human trafficking 3.2 1990s–present: Sex offenders 3.3 1980s–1990s: Satanic ritual abuse 3.4 1980s–1990s: Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 1980s–present: AIDS 3.6 1970s–present: Video games and violence 3.7 1970s–present: Crime increase 3.8 1970s–present: War on drugs 4 Criticism 5 Other 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links Use as a social science term[edit] Marshall McLuhan gave the term academic treatment in his book Understanding Media, written in 1964.[9] According to Stanley Cohen, author of a sociological study about youth culture and media called Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1972),[10] a moral panic occurs when "...[a] condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests".[4] Those who start the panic when they fear a threat to prevailing social or cultural values are known by researchers as moral entrepreneurs, while people who supposedly...
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...implicated in explaining viewers' unemotional reactions to the medias constant portrayal of violence (cite). Societies continuous exposure to the medias violence results in desensitization, which causes undermine feelings of concern, compassion, or empathy that individuals may end up having toward victims of actual violent acts (cite).The average child between the ages of eight to eighteen spends approximately forty-four point five hours weekly watching television, resulting in them transforming to remote-controlled mechanisms, being gradually brainwashed by misleading representations (cite). The Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that "the introduction of television in the 1950's caused a subsequent doubling of the homicide rate, i.e., long-term childhood exposure to television is a causal...
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...content, modern video games have recently been under investigation. This prompts the question: “Should we permit the government to suppress our rights and censor violent entertainment?” Bills are being put forward to manage video games, banning minors under the age of 18 to purchase "mature" rated video games. In the United States Supreme Court case known as Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, seven out of nine justices were against regulating video games, justifying it as the first amendment right of free speech. What originally raised awareness to video game violence was the assumption that the offensive content in question has a positive correlation with aggressive and violent adolescent...
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...To begin, video game violence has been a problem for a long time now since the video game Death Race. “The objects was to run over these things called gremlins with a car and then which they would turn into tombstones.” (Source #1). Next, as many as 97% of kids 12-17 play violent video games. On “Oct.7 2005, California passed a law that requires violent video games to include an 18 years of age to play.” (Source #1). The problem is that so many people are playing violent video games that is is having an effect on society. There has been increase of shootings and increase of any violence like bullying because violent games are teaching kids it is okay to bully. Furthermore, the violence from video games all started when the game Death Run came out of the stores. “In 1993 the game’s Mortal Kombat and Night Trap held a Congress to hold hearings on the regulating sales on video games.” (Source #1). “In California Attorney General Dan Lungren testified that violent video games...
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...costs were due to pre trials, trials, appeals, state habeas corpus petitions, federal habeas corpus appeals and costs of incarceration. If the governor commuted the rest of the sentences to life without parole, California would save $170 million per year. Studies from the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice web site show “The cost of a system which imposes a maximum penalty of lifetime incarceration instead of the death penalty would be $11.5 million per year.”(2088) In conclusion, facts show that the death penalty actually costs the state over four times the cost of life time prisoners. Violent video games lead to an increase in crime. Studies show that violent video games lead to an increase in crime. This is actually very shocking to me, that studies were made for one thing and also that they show violent games lead to an increase in crime. These studies were made on 18-24yo adults and also 18 and below adolescence. In these studies the test groups were monitored for signs of aggression and the absence of helping others. The scientists found that, although the violent nature could not be examined, those groups that played...
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...Bad Behavior cannot be Blamed on Video Games Fred Smith University of Tennessee Abstract For years, concerned citizens, policy makers and parents have thought that violence in the media and now violent video games are one of the main contributing factors to aggressive and violent behavior in some of our society’s teenagers. Past studies have indicated a link between these video games and aggressive behavior. Yet, as video games sales sore to new heights, violent crime committed by our youth is decreasing. Empirical evidence along with some recent studies shows that there is not a link between the two. It is more likely that aggressive teenagers are drawn to violent video games than violent video games are causing teenagers to be aggressive. Bad Behavior cannot be Blamed on Video Games How times have changed. Imagine coming home from work on a Friday evening after a very long week to the sounds of boys wrestling in your living room. They are screaming and yelling at the top of their lungs, all at the same time. You hear things like “hit him”, “watch out”, “get over here”, “jump on him” and “get him”. You quickly make your way to the living room to see five nearly motionless teenagers wearing headsets and microphones. Two of them are sitting on the couch with their laptops on the coffee table. One is in the far corner in a rocking chair using a TV tray. The last two are set up of the card table...
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...Government vs. Video Games Michael Winchester Governments are strongly against kids playing video games and the government is wrong. The government thinks if kids are play video games that have graphic violence, sex, violent scenes, gory scenes, partial nudity, full nudity, portrayal of criminal behavior they will become criminals. There is a wide assortment of games out there and not all of them are bad. The games that those people think are bad are rated for adults only, not for kids and it’s the parents fault for letting kids play them. Video games are for fun, they’re not a reference for how to be a violent person. Parents should be monitoring their kids more often. I am a very firm believer in the thought that video games are meant to be for fun and do not affect how violent a person may become. The Government looks at video games completely the wrong way. One of their thoughts is that when someone plays to many video games it can make them violent and can make them into criminals. Looking at the classic game of "Cops and Robbers" and "Cowboys and Indians": children pretend to rob banks and shoot cops dead; toy guns or imaginary weapons are aimed at opponents; losers are supposed to "play dead." Fast-forward to the present and the debate over video game regulation. (Thierer, 2003) The recently introduced bill H.R. 669 by Rep. Joe Baca (D-CA), "The Protect Children from Video Game Sex and Violence Act of 2003." This bill would impose fines on anyone who sells or rents...
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