The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

Violent videogames reduce crime

Anti-gaming tests are flawed, says report

While there's no end of detractors claiming that violent videogames cause aggressive, often criminal behaviour, some refreshing research has now insisted that the opposite is true.

The report, entitled Understanding the Effects of Violent Video Games on Violent Crime, says while "there is evidence that violent videogames cause aggression in a laboratory setting, there is no evidence that [they] cause violence or crime [in society]".

Rise of Nightmares

Lost your mind?

Written by Benjamin Engelstätter from the Centre for European Economic Research, Scott Cunningham from Baylor University in Texas, and Michael Ward from the University of Texas, the paper essentially asserts that because gamers are too busy gaming, they're unable to cause much trouble in the real world. No shizzle, Sherlocks.

The report reckons that if we took the amount of time spent gaming into consideration, we'd realise that crime is lower because of it. They therefore conclude that banning such games could actually lead to an increase in criminal activity.

"We argue that since laboratory experiments have not examined the time use effects of videogames, which incapacitate violent activity by drawing individual gamers into extended gameplay, laboratory studies may be poor predictors of the net effects of violent videogames in society," the reports says, adding that such studies "overstate the importance of videogame-induced aggression as a social cost".

Basically, while we may get aggressive after our kill-streaks come to an end, we're more likely to keep gunning down virtual baddies than to re-enact such violence on the streets.

The research backs up a statement made by iD Software's John Carmack in August in which the man behind Doom said he believes violent videogames actually lower aggression. ®

@ph0bos

Yep.

And the "video games cause violent behaviour" lobby itself is just a development from the "films cause violent behaviour" of the 60s/70s and the "D&D causes violent behaviour" of the 80s. Rinse, repeat, rant rabidly...

5
0

Wow

D&D and Films and Video games.

It's a wonder I can walk down the street without ripping someones head off.

4
0

Newsflash

People that can't distinguish between fiction and reality were effed up long before even touching a video game. That includes yourself.

As a thought exercise, substitute video games in your little rant there with violent films and tell me why video games are a problem while movies are apparently not.

2
0

You forgot...

... the "rock and roll causes violent behaviour" of the 1950s.

Kids rebel against their parents; the parents believe they've taught their kids the same values that they had, so inevitably blame something that their kids have and they didn't at the same age. There was probably a "ye pryntynge presse causeth violente behaveour" lobby in the 1390s - though we don't hear about their psychological research because of course, they didn't publish.

2
0

Again?

Is it me or has this report about gamers not having time to be committing crimes been reported on repeatedly for a couple of months now.

Otherwise the idea should be no surprise. People advocating that video game cause violent behaviour really need to explain why since 92 (when Doom was released) violent crime has been decreasing and is now at a record low (at least in the US, the biggest gaming market).

3
1

More from The Register

Android is a mess and needs sprucing up, admits chief
Can Google really fix it? It isn't in control any more
New Lumia 925: This, loyalists, is the BIG ONE you've waited for
Nokia veep drills high-end master plan for El Reg
Android device? Ooohhhh, you mean a Samsung phone
Koreans nabbed nearly all the Q1 profits – more even than Google
Review: HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook
All roads lead to Chrome?
Borked your iDevice? Pay EVEN MORE to have it fixed by Applecare
Or scream at their hapless techies on their forums
Euro PC shipments plummet into bottomless pit of DOOOOM
11th quarter of decline, 20pc drop on last year - Gartner
MIT takes battery-powered robot cheetah for a gallop
Biomimetic big cat needs no power cord, just a walker