Counterpoint: Games don't cause violence

by Blake Snow { Mar 2nd 2007 at 4:15PM }

According to sociologist Karen Sternheimer from the University of Southern California, homicide arrests among teens are down 77% since 1993. That's the year Doom was introduced: gamers fell in love with the new and aggressively named "first-person shooter" genre, and parents feared it and similar games would teach kids how to kill.

Depending on how accurate Sternheimers figures are, that clearly didn't happen. We're not ignorant to the fact that mass media holds a powerful influence on consumers (for better or for worse). But the archaic belief that video games encourage mass killing rather than merely galvanizing an already unstable individual in the minority is just flawed. The number of people playing games is up as crime rates continue to decline. The correlation isn't there.

So why is it so popular to blame games? Hit the read link for an interesting take (in PDF). The short answer; you blame what you don't understand.

[via FierceGameBiz]

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

steve17 @ Mar 2nd 2007 4:26PM

its been said a million times and i will say it again.

people like to use huge words and twist the truth to confuse the average person, who, belives it all and fail to do their own research, simply because some kid goes fucking bonkers and kills 12 people with a chainsaw and noone knows who to blame. it couldnt possibly be the parents, NO! there is no possiblity that the kid is just plain fucking insane. NOPE. there couldnt possibly be other factors that had to do with it like if he was beat and mollested as a child OF COURSE NOT!! then what????

OH!! hes been playing grand theft auto lately. thats GOTTA be it!

32_Footsteps @ Mar 2nd 2007 4:35PM

Hmm... Karen Sternheimer... who wants to take bets she won't be remembered the next time video gamers want to honor someone who advanced video gaming?

Still, I've got to print up a few dozen copies of Dr. Sternheimer's report. This will be useful for handing out to politicians should any of them try to pass an anti-video game bill on the basis that video games are ruining society.

ill trooper @ Mar 2nd 2007 4:38PM

"...homicide arrests among teens are down 77% since 1993. That's the year Doom was introduced"

Couple of things with that first sentence... This statistic is talking about arrests, not homicides. It's also talking about teens, and a "teen" affected by DOOM since 1993 can no longer be a "teen," so the statistic wouldn't apply if the person ARRESTED was an adult affected years ago but was only caught NOW.

I'm not disputing the argument, but simply questioning some of the 'evidence' used by people on EITHER side of this debate.

Always good to invoke the ol' Carl Sagan Baloney Detection Kit rules:

http://users.tpg.com.au/users/tps-seti/baloney.html

In particular, these rules:

"Misunderstanding the nature of statistics (President Eisenhower expressing astonishment and alarm on discovering that fully half of all Americans have below average intelligence!)"

and

"Confusion of correlation and causation"

Crono @ Mar 2nd 2007 4:38PM

As much as I like hearing about this, you're preaching to the choir, joystiq. We all already know that games don't cause violence, just as Rock music didn't cause delinquent behavior in the 70's and 60's. This post might be more appropriate on Engadget, where there are still a few idiots who don't understand games.

SickNic @ Mar 2nd 2007 4:44PM

The only thing parents and the media should be worried about is obesity. If homicide rates are going down since '93, and obesity levels are rising, isn't that a correlation that should worry politicians, parents, and the media? Maybe politicians should stop spending so much on lawsuits against the industry and start fixing domestic problems. They should start buying DDR arcade cabinets and put them in our children's schools...

RomeoDude @ Mar 2nd 2007 4:59PM

Games don't cause violence.... Violence causes games,,, good games.

Jake @ Mar 2nd 2007 5:11PM

ill trooper,

DOOM is considered the first massively popular ultra-violent FPS game by most. She uses 1993, the year of DOOM, more as a year in which violent FPS's began. She isn't just trying to point at DOOM only. DOOM was the first. Since DOOM, homicide rates amongst teens have dropped every year.

Other notes.
She uses homicide arrest rates amongst teens because that number is pretty exact. You have to guess at numbers of homicides commited by teens because not every murderer is caught, so that number wouldn't be as accurate. The correlation should be the same. Less teens murdering, less getting caught.

I have been arguing for the last couple years that games don't cause violence because violent crime is down about 50% since Goldeneye. It is annoying that those arguing that games do cause violence aren't using logic or studies, only logical fallacies and rhetoric.

I have yet to see an anti-game article that doesn't use logical fallacies, and lots of them. Every experience will affect you. Games affect you. It just is that games don't necessarily affect you negatively or to a significant amount. That part is always assumed somehow.

sporge @ Mar 2nd 2007 5:40PM

Honestly with those figures one could say they help decrease actual violence by increasing fake violence. It is kinda like one of Freud's theories where you have so much aggressive energy and we need to find proper outlets or else we really start acting out. That is an extremely simple v3ersion of it, but the main idea.

Anyway it is also a case of what causes what. Is it not possible that kids that end up murderers actually play more violent games because of their abnormally aggressive behavior instead of the games causing the murderous behavior?

This is honestly why I hate most media, they jump to conclusions far to quickly. The only thing worse is the amount of people who believe them.

Mr Khan @ Mar 2nd 2007 5:26PM

@ SickNic

I'd rather we'd all be obese and peaceful than trim and violent

Sub @ Mar 2nd 2007 6:29PM

This is a pretty horrible thing to say, but some have suggested that the reason for the huge drop in crime rate from 1990 on is because abortion was legalized. Less un-wanted kids were around so less crime happened.

It's horrible giving a positive effect of abortion, but it's a pretty valid argument. Video games in all likelihood had nothing to do with the crime drop.

Sub @ Mar 2nd 2007 6:30PM

Just wanted to add that anyone who goes out and kills a dude because of a video game was severely messed up in the first place and would have snapped sooner or later.

Just my two cents

Psaakyrn @ Mar 2nd 2007 6:35PM

to #10 Sub

And why is abortion so wrong that you think it's horrible giving a positive effect on it?

In a proper debate, nothing is wrong unless otherwise proved. Even if you use the "humanity" arguement, that can still be argued that it doesn't apply in the case of abortion or stem cell research. (now, the playing God arguement is slightly different, but that doesn't affect abortion much).

Sub @ Mar 2nd 2007 6:53PM

I don't want to start a political / ethical debate, I'd like to just simply say I view abortion as wrong and kindly ask you to respect my opinion. If you view abortion as morally ok, than that's your decision and I won't try to change it.

But yeah, you're right, in a proper debate I wouldn't have said something like that. But hey, this is the internet, not a proper debate.

jonny quest @ Mar 2nd 2007 7:11PM

GENTLE BEN!!!!

Leshrac @ Mar 2nd 2007 8:07PM

#10-

Even if true, it's highly unlikely that that accounts for the majority of the drop.

It does kind of remind me about when I was in debate though. When I first started learning about it, we had to come up with a policy to "reduce juvenile crime." Our policy was to limit everyone to 2 kids and force women to use an IUD after 2, or some other mode of enforcement, in order to lower the overall birthrate in the country... less kids means less juvenile crime. =) It was never really a serious policy, and we only used it once in a practice debate, but the other team didn't really know how to respond, so we ended up winning anyway. =)

Now that I've gone completely off topic... ummm, yeah... Linking videogames to violence really makes me want to hit things... it must be all the videogames I play.

-Leshrac
http://alinktothefuture.com

Brit @ Mar 3rd 2007 2:07AM

Wow. You know what's weird - I wrote almost the exact same thing a few weeks ago on my website. I tracked down the homicide statistics in the US, I looked at how much they changed since 1993 - when Doom appeared on the market. I even pointed out the fact that the 14-17 age group showed one of the largest homicide declines since 1993. It's eerie how much this mirrored exactly what I said about this.
http://www.empiresofsteel.com/devdiary/?p=60

NoHitHair @ Mar 3rd 2007 6:13AM

I firmly stand behind video games' freedom. I don't believe there's any correlation between this entertainment medium and any rise in crime, specifically violent. That said, however, your logic makes no sense.

You're implying that Doom's release had at the very least no impact and at most a pacifying one regarding "homicide arrests." There are far too many variables to even begin to associate a game's release having anything at all to do with crime rates, especially at a time when gaming was rather esoteric. For example: Doom's release could have very well sparked a few teenagers to kill, but perhaps a new federal program implemented at the time caused the broader pool of wouldbe murderers to abandon their potential crime - we don't know. Crime rates are affected on a dramatically more significant scale when related to economy, social programs and federal laws. Space flight and interest in the universe has increased quite a bit over the last few years - is that because Starcraft came out in '98?

Drawing a conclusion that video games don't inspire violence based on this study's coincidental yearly analysis with that of Doom's release is ridiculous. Just as ridiculous as it is for anyone to blame a harmless and misunderstood entertainment medium as the catalyst for society's problems. Simply put, video games are nowhere near popular enough to affect anything to the degree proposed.

http://blog.myspace.com/nohithair