I'm sure you're aware of this, but those graphs are ridiculous. It's like the old 'ice cream linked to increased crime' metaphor. Crime is driven almost entirely but economic and demographic factors. Videogames, if they had an impact, would certainly be almost invisible on a graph like that.

You see, i could get violent toward your negative attitude but instead i'm going to play on a video game.

Well Played!

I think the argument is not that video games are increasing violence in teens but that its actually not. These graphs just show that violence in the younger population has actually gone down during the increasing popularity of video games.

Which may or may not be a coincidence.

The violence levels may be going down but that may not be because of video games.

It would be great if they were teh cause of the drop in violence.

And even if video games are not the cause of the lessening onf Violence, it certanly has not been going up since they have been coming out.

So either way, they people that think Video Games are the cause of Violence aere still idiots!

Yes....

_>

Should I send these to our old friend Tommy Gunn now, or what? His reaction would be priceless.

There's a broader issue here, which is that correlation does not equal causality. Even if youth violence had started climbing the day the first Donkey Kong was released, and tripled the day GTA came out, it wouldn't prove that video games were responsible. There are countless factors in culture, media, economics and parenting styles that influence trends in teenage behavior. To be able to pinpoint a single cause for a broad trend would be a Herculean feat of science.

Actually the point isn't that "playing video games results in less violence", which some people think is what I'm saying. What I am saying is others have been going on and on that violence in America has been increasing over the years. In turn this increase in violence is directly related to playing violent video games.

What these articles show is that violence has decreased over the years, not increased. That's it. Nothing else. Hence, the central aspect of their argument is not true.

Now, if they can somehow prove that this decrease in violence was caused by other outside factors and that if people weren't playing violent video games that it would be even lower then they could prove their point. However these articles show, on the surface at least, that their broad strokes and general arguments aren't supported by even the most general evidence.

I would be interested to be proven wrong.

While the "correlation does not equal causality" is true, my personal opinion is that games like GTA can indeed offer a recipe for the person that would probably do their deed anyway sooner or later. What comes to kids I think gaming started young may decrease traditional crimes of shoplifting etc, however some may just move to pirate them or learn about black-hat stuff later on.

Now if we could only make these people play classic adventure games, read sci-fi literature and see every Star Trek episode, I am sure there would be even less crime. Or perhaps doing those things would make them feel so miserable about the Bush administration that they would rather think about

I was just reading about Death Race, the 1970s equivalent of GTA (and accompanying media frenzy). Steve, if you haven't already, you should give your readership a glimpse of this "highly controversial" game from way back when. Might bring some perspective to the current hubabaloo.

Heck, we should also recall the Tipper Gore/heavy-metal witchhunt of the 80s...

ac: I read lots of SF books, and I think that if someone forced me to watch all of the Star Trek shows I'd have to kill them. Still the idea has merit… perhaps if we substituted Babylon 5 in for the Star Trek it would be better. Especially that episode where the news media badly distorts what everybody on the station says and does for their news show.

Wow, I am truly amazed at the critical look at this data that this community has taken. I personaly feel that is a good thing, as it shows we are not just mindless idiots. Even if video games are not directly related to the decrease in violence they deffinalty to not increase violence.

BTW db48x. That episode of Babylon 5 was fantastic.

Something else that I find verifying on the first chart, are the age groups of the gamers. 62% of all gamers are adults. 35% shouldn't be playing GTA, and 3% don't even know how old they are. lol My point is though, you can find information like this from any educated game site. Just like the information about youth violence decreasing. However, you don't here that information on the radio, you don't see it on tv, and you sure as heck don't here it from the politicians. They don't want the public to hear information like that. They do want the public to hear about things like Columbine (where were the parents? that's never mentioned)and Hot Coffee. This is about politicians targeting parents, after all family values is a big thing right now. But what do family values have to do with a single adult male playing video games, or the other 62% of adults that play video games just like me?

'Netcraft confirms:'

Gaming kills people!

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2005-08-09T172150Z_01_SEO177834_RTRIDST_0_TECH-KOREA-GAMES-DC.XML

SEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean man who played computer games for 50 hours almost non-stop died of heart failure minutes after finishing his mammoth session in an Internet cafe, authorities said Tuesday ...

The chart of video game sales against recorded violent crimes is pointless.
It does not show the number of 'violent games' released over time. It's fair to say the Pokemon Ruby for the Gameboy will not have any link to violence.

Why not do some research and produce chart to show 'violent games' eg. those rated 15 or 18+ and feature violence against your fellow man. This will undoubtably show an increase year on year.

Charts like this have to be 'fair' and show things in the proper context.

I'm not an advocate of 'games cause violence', but I personally do not like games like GTA3, Manhunter, Max Payne etc which make killing people into fun. I do enjoy games like Resident Evil which contains 'scenes of violence and gore'. BUT there is a difference.

Although the charts may be coincidences, I am still a strong supporter of vg's

Correlation does not mean causality. Using that argument, one could say that because of the drop in crime rate, people have bought more games in order to make up for lack of crime in real life.

The book Freakonomics suggested that after controlling for many other factors, one change that coincides with the sudden drop in the crime rate in the early nineties was the legalization of abortion in the seventies. ***Without making any moral judgements***, the authors suppose that a reduction in unwanted pregnancies resulted about 15 years later in a reduction of juvenile crime.

Anyway, the only way they'll eve be able to "prove" a link between violent games and violent crime will be to a double-blind study of two large, diverse, populations with different exposure to violent video games. So far I haven't heard of any studies such as this. Probably because the people who would fund these sort of studies are not finding the result they hoped for.

I am doing a project on this subject and think that these topics have nothing in common...the kids who did colombine would have done it if video games weren't invented. same with michael carneal and the teenager from Fayette.....

I play violent video games alot...i have all the socoms, all the splinter cells, all the grand theft autos and many more games of crime, murder and blood. Have i shown up to my high school with a gun?......some kids are just messed up

This has made my day, you are the king.

THANKS SO MUCH ALL OF THIS WAS SO HELPFUL..PS. DON'T LISTEN TO THE LOSERS WHO LEFT THE COMMENTS ABOUT HOW IT WASNT HELPFUL

You guys are morons... Video games don't CAUSE violence, they give idea's for violent acts, but who the hells going to go out and cause a shoot-out? Who's going to pick up a prostitute SIMPLY FOR THE FACT that GTA had prostitutes? No one WANTS to get shot, and no kid wants to get in trouble. Video games show what the real world is like, and what the real world isn't like. Anyone with common sense should know that. Any kid who says they did something cause it was in a video game should be shot without a blindfold with a rocket launcher.

Also, your crime rates are wrong, I visited the ojp.usdaj.gov (Justice department) and I found that your graph of violence looks to be about the age of 35 - 49, or a combonation of the ages 50 - 64 and up. You should find accurate documentation before you put it on your site. The correct crime rate for all ages is well above 300,000. Your chart isn't nearly on a great enough scale. However, your concept is correct, since the year 1995, crime rates have probably dropped by at least 100,000 until 2004.

I am a 14 year old kid that is gettin really pissed off at his mother becuz she won't let me play GTA! Thats why i am going around the internet finding information that says violence is not influenced by video games. If there are any other sites that PROVE video games don't have a violent affect on people, then contact me at snopup_1@hotmail.com.

these are whack graphs

This chart can be a coincidence or just wrong...video games dramatically increase violence. Correct and proven statistics (by scientists and therapists the same) show that video games cause agression, lack of focus, and less helping behavior. It is also known that many video games go uncensored for adult content (graffiti, crimes) and excessive adult language, such as Grand Theft Auto and many others. These games have a big impact on teens. In fact, many adolescents when interviewed in jail stated that they got their ideas from video games. So to those who said video games have no connection crime rates and still believe so...go interview some teen prisoners and prove yourself wrong...video games lead to violence...thats that sorry ppl face the facts

...video games dramatically increase violence. Correct and proven statistics (by scientists and therapists the same) show that video games cause agression, lack of focus, and less helping behavior. It is also known that many video games go uncensored for adult content (graffiti, crimes) and excessive adult language, such as Grand Theft Auto and many others. These games have a big impact on teens. In fact, many adolescents when interviewed in jail stated that they got their ideas from video games. So to those who said video games have no connection crime rates and still believe so...go interview some teen prisoners and prove yourself wrong...video games lead to violence...thats that sorry ppl face the facts and to the 14 year old kid...i'm your age and i'm allowed to play it but i see no point in the game...play it once and it's okay but seriously dont waste ur money, oh and video games o increase so ur not gonna hav much luckk...=))