It is believed that video games are the root of violent and criminal behavior.  Such as the Columbine High School shooting which there were two student shooters and investigators said that video games were the root of their actions.  This is not the case, because one was a sociopath and the other had a major depressive disorder, and on top of those issues they were bullied in school.  The media and other news sources look for something to blame without using data and correct information.  Violent video games have been a heavily debated topic about whether they should be legal due to the violence.  However, there is no single scientific finding that can tell whether video games are the cause of criminal behavior in young adults.  Through the use of scientific and statistical evidence to support the claim, how video games do not cause criminal behavior.

The video game industry is one of the biggest in world grossing billions every year, and there are new advancements in graphics and technology every year.  Video games are more realistic and better than they have ever been.  Video games are not suggesting to do what is done in the game, but rather giving you a chance to do things that you cannot do and to relax.  The concern is that the video game industry and players are looked at as violent people because of the few that attacked and killed innocent lives.  The few who performed these actions happened to play violent video games, but they are not the sole reason for their actions.  In a video by a channel called Bite Size Psych the narrator says “For every spike in video game sales there is a decrease in assaults and crime.”  The narrator used graphs, from the time when the video was released, to prove how his claims are true.  The graphs use the years 2007 to 2011 and each spike is in the months of September, October, November, and December.  These months are when new video games are released every year, and the claims align up in chronological order.

The belief that video games cause violent behavior is false, due to many experiments and case studies through which have found that there is no correlation. ” Indeed, cross-sectional studies have found positive correlations between violent video game play and real-life aggression. Longitudinal studies showed that habitual violent video game play predicts later aggression even after controlling for initial levels of aggressiveness. Finally, experimental studies have revealed that playing violent video games is a causal risk factor for increased aggression.” (Hollingdale, Greitemeyer 2014) A cross-sectional study is the study of a population at a specific time, and a longitudinal study is performed the same way except over a longer period, and the experimenters do not interfere with the participants’ actions.  Another experiment has found similar results “This result does not support a relationship between violent video game playing and aggressive behavior.” (Ferguson 2007) The difference between the two studies is that one found that video games do increase aggressive behavior, but not violent behavior and the one Ferguson performed found that aggressive behavior does not correlate with violent video games.

A publication in the American Psychological Association (APA) website shows what it means to increase aggressive behavior and how their behavior changes.  “The research demonstrates a consistent relation between violent video game use and increases in aggressive behavior, aggressive cognitions and aggressive affect, and decreases in prosocial behavior, empathy and sensitivity to aggression” (Appelbaum et al 2015) This group of psychologists who conducted research to acquire these findings were put together by the APA, and shows how important this topic is because the public wants a scientific answer to the issue.  This task force, as it is called, was put together to find information about violent video games effects.  The task force has found that there is little research that whether video games cause people to commit acts of criminal violence.  In their report, it states “No single risk factor consistently leads a person to act aggressively or violently, rather, it is the accumulation of risk factors that tends to lead to aggressive or violent behavior. The research reviewed here demonstrates that violent video game use is one such risk factor.” (Appelbaum et al) It can be a risk if violent video games are played daily and for many hours, but if in small amounts of time played it can be beneficial for spatial reasoning skills.

An experiment conducted by Bushman and Huesmann aimed to find the short-term and long-term effects of violent media on children and adults.  The results of the experiment: “As expected, the short-term effects of violent media were greater for adults than for children whereas the long-term effects were greater for children than for adults. The results also showed that there were overall modest but significant effect sizes for exposure to media violence on aggressive behaviors, aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, arousal levels, and helping behavior.” (Bushman and Huesmann 2006) These results are similar to the other experiments and studies which support one another by using their colleague’s findings to prove validity of the experiment.  As well as strengthen the argument how video games do not cause criminal behavior, but rather it is a nurture argument.  Which means that it is how the person is brought up, how they were taught, their sociocultural influences, and environmental influences.  These aspects of anyone’s upbringing is crucial to how they will behave for the rest of their life.

A great way to examine this is through a psychological stand point with the use of Albert Bandura and the social learning theory.  The social learning theory is a theory of how people learn from observing others in a social situation, and what is leaned are behaviors, values, attitudes, and sayings.  In the experiment, Bandura conducted he used children and put them in a room surrounded by toys and a Bobo doll, which is a blow-up doll that cannot fall over. (Bandura 1961) The children were shown a video in which the doll was being hit by an adult and that is it.  The results were that the children were able to learn aggression through observing adult behavior.  This shows that it is learned during a person’s early stages of development, during the pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational. (Piaget 1936) Sensorimotor stage is irrelevant because of it is the first two years of a child’s life and is just learning how to use their senses and cannot really be influenced by observations.  However, in the middle two stages and the beginning of the final stage is where children and teenagers are the most impressionable and learn the most about themselves.  That is why violent video games are intended for older players seventeen years and older because of the graphic and suggestive content that can harm a child’s behavior.

This has so far analyzed the western side of the world now to take a look east using a study that examines Germany and Australian perceptions of violent video games by Jens Schroeder.  “The results on this issue are inconclusive and encompass a huge body of conflicting work.  Even so, the impact of violent games, meant to be played by adults, on children growing up in a disadvantaged environment which teaches them that violence is a legitimate means to advance is not likely to be beneficial.  However, if one wants to analyze possible links, the methodology should comply to present-day standards and not be tainted by cultural prejudices which predetermine the outcome.” (Schroeder 2011) Through these findings by it can be inferred that this topic of debate is not contained to the western region, but it is a global issue that cannot be resolved.  Also, knowing Australia’s history of violence and how they have the record largest mass killing in the world.  Which is not a good record to hold, and knowing this information makes this matter even more important for the Australian people.  However, the Australian government has banned all firearms and is not like the issue in Germany.  Germany has had school shootings in the pat twenty-one years and Australia has not due to the ban of firearms, but Australia is still taking precautions to protect the nation from another mass killing.

A YouTube video by the channel LearnLiberty is asking the question Do Video Games Cause More Violence?  This video is narrated by a professor of economics from the University of Texas at Arlington, and the purpose he is making this video is because he has children that play video games, and was surprised that they could make his children want to harm others.  He conducted three studies about video game usage and crime to find if there is a correlation between video games and violence.  “More video game playing is actually associated with less real life violence, and a 100% increase in violent video game consumption led to a 1% statistical measurable decrease.” (LearnLiberty 2014) The ways in which video games actually decrease crime is through catharsis and time management.  Which means that people cathartically release their emotions in a video game rather than performing those actions in the real world on other real human beings.  The time management is that for every hour that someone is playing video games is an hour that they are not out in the world committing crimes and acts of violence.  The video goes on to show how over the past twenty years there has been a decrease in youth violence, which disproves how video games increase violent behavior.  The narrator concludes by saying “If people are violent, games did not make them that way.” (LearningLiberty 2014)

A CNN article asked the same question as the LearningLiberty video, Do Video Games Lead to Violence?  This article discusses a shooting that happened in Germany in 2016 and explains how the shooter was a first-person shooter fan (FPS) and were questioning how violent video games could be negatively affecting the youth of the nation.  “Both the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics take a firm stance against children and teens playing violent video games.” (CNN) Which is why there are game ratings, such as M for Mature 17+, which are the more violent video games that only adults are allowed to play, due to their cognitive development being developed enough to not take the actions in the game as truth.  “Whitney DeCamp, an associate professor of sociology at Western Michigan University, says the evidence points to either no relationship between playing video games and violent behavior or an "insignificant" link between the two.” (CNN) This psychologist discusses a psychologist that was mentioned previously, Ferguson, and how he suggests that video games reduce societal violence rather than increase it.  This is by boys and other gamers doing what they like and they stay off the streets and do not commit crimes because they are inside playing video games.

On the other hand, “Some point out that violent crime has declined over the last twenty years as video games have become more vivid and violent. However, many other powerful factors influence the crime rate, from demographics to changes in policing to drug wars. So, this observation tells us very little about the effect of violent video games on behavior.” (Psychology Today) These points need to be taken into account, as video game technology advances so does weapons and police abilities.  These violent video games do increase the aggression of the players of violent video games.  Also, when playing violent video games killing or eliminating an enemy rewards the player for that action which is not something to teach to impressionable teenagers and the youth of the nation.  When younger children play video games with adults they learn profanity and information children should not know at their young age.  The American Psychological Association task force’s findings support how video games can increase aggression which can lead to violent behavior and criminal activity.  Through participation in the actions in a violent video game one learns better.  “First, video game play is active whereas watching TV is passive. People learn better when they are actively involved.” (Psychology Today) Players playing violent video games through the eyes of the killer and makes them more connected to their character.  “Second, players of violent video games are more likely to identify with a violent character.” (Psychology Today) 

Violent video games are a path to criminal behavior because of what the games are suggesting and people will actually try what is in the violent video game.  “The results show that both the frequency of play and affinity for violent games were strongly associated with delinquent and violent behavior… violent video game exposure is not the sole cause of violence, but this study shows it is a risk factor.” (iastate.edu) This source shows how new evidence has shed light on how violent video games strongly correlate with violent and criminal behavior.  The source goes onto to show how parents need to be informed about how violent media can cause their children to have more violent behavior and aggressive tendencies.  

The argument that violent video games will be a topic debated until a final verdict is found scientifically or the government will conclude about violent video games.  However, the fact that video games are the expression of people and is considered art.  Through the use of many experiments, case studies, videos, and statistical evidence has shown the strength of the argument and how there is a large quantity of findings that support how video games do not cause violent and criminal behavior.  However, there is evidence that discredits some of the information in the argument, but is not a strong enough argument to show how violent video games do cause violent and criminal behavior.  
