Published in Gaming

Violent computer games do not increase crime

by on06 November 2014

New study out

An increased violent video game consumption correlates with declines in youth violence, according to a new study. A recent study published in the Journal of Communication by a researcher at Stetson University found that there were no associations between media violence consumption in society and societal violence.

Christopher Ferguson (Stetson University) published his findings in the Journal of Communication after carrying out two studies to see if the incidence of violence in media correlates with actual violence rates in society. The first study looked at movie violence and homicide rates between 1920 and 2005. The second study looked at videogame violence consumption and its relationship to youth violence rates from 1996-2011. He found that societal consumption of media violence is not predictive of increased violence rates in society.

In the first study independent raters evaluated the frequency and graphicness of violence in popular movies from 1920-2005. These were correlated to homicide rates for the same years. During the mid-20th century, movie violence and homicide rates did appear to correlate slightly, which may have led some to believe a larger trend was at play. That correlation reversed after 1990 so that movie violence became correlated with fewer homicides. Before the 1940s, movie violence was similarly related to fewer homicides, not more.

In the second study on video game violence, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) ratings were used to estimate the violent content of the most popular video games for the years 1996-2011. These estimates of societal video game violence consumption were correlated against federal data on youth violence rates during the same years.

Violent video games were correlated with declines in youth violence. However, it was concluded that such a correlation was due to chance and did not indicate video games caused the decline in youth violence. So far studies have focused on laboratory experiments and aggression as a response to movie and videogame violence, and this is the first one which looked at real-life exposure.

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