Do Games Like 'Grand Theft Auto' Cause Real World Violence

Video games have become a major occupation of majority of the youth these days. They spend hours on end concentrating on video games, some of which are apparently very violent, yet this is actually the whole idea. Coming from the horse's mouth is an argument in support of video games coined from a video programmer's point of view, stating that violent video games allow people to do what they can not do in reality- virtual reality. ( http://www.theroc.org/roc-mag/textarch/roc-15/roc15-08.htm ) For instance, someone said to be having a bad day could use a violent video game to release stress by shooting down a couple hundred bad men than actually taking an AK-47 and spilling down a few brains down the

Moreover, many kids deal with violence and can’t control it. As a result of having issues with violence some people play video games to let their violence and anger out. People need to understand that “ [b]ut overall, violent crime is down in the US-indeed, as violent games have become more popular, violent crime has fallen." (Erik Kain 1) The more popular the game is studies show violent

Dylan klebold, Eric Harris, James Holmes, and Adam Lanza. What do all of these men have in common. To start, they all committed mass shootings killing or injuring from 20 to 84 people. According to Eric Kain in the article “Do Games Like 'Grand Theft Auto V' Cause Real-World Violence?” they all were described as being addicted to video games. Over the years we have all heard from one person to another about videogames being harmful, but are they right? Today video games are as bloody and violent as ever and their violence may be fueling the urges of crimes in the real world. Violent video games can cause harm in the real world and to the people who play them. From suggesting that violence is acceptable, causing aggressiveness in players, and being above all harmful to those with mental illnesses. Violent games as certainly causing a great deal more harm than good.

First off, the type of video game does not matter in causing violence as much as the amount of time spent playing does. As stated in a study by the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, ”Those children who spend more time playing games might be slightly likelier to be hyperactive and to get into fights. But violent video games seem to have no effect on behavior, according to British researchers”. So videogames, both violent and non-violent, when played for too long, can lead to more aggression.In the same study, it’s stated that “The researchers found that the 22 kids who played video games the most each day were the likeliest to have behavioral problems, exhibit hyperactivity and have trouble academically, although the effects were "quite small in magnitude,” So, even though there were behavioral changes in

According to U.S. News, “video game sales are one of the biggest markets in the U.S. and with that juvenile crime rates have decreased.” Because of violent video games many teens and young adults are playing the games instead of going outside and committing crimes. According to BBC News, “the long term consequences of crime and actual violent behavior, there is no evidence linking violent video games with that. Violent video games are played by millions of people, and very few commit crimes connected to playing violent video

Do violent video games make people more violent in public and in general? Studies done by “Bureau of Justice Statistics; Entertainment Software Association’’ states that total violent crime is going down as computer and video game sales are going up. Some people think violent video games are the cause of school shootings and other violent crimes. As many as 97% of kids ages 12-17 play video games (contributing to the $21.53 BILLION domestic video game industry). More than half of the 50-top selling video games contain violence.

Lately, it seems that there has been an abundance of horrible mass shootings and brutal violence in our world. In today’s seemingly dangerous world, parents are yearning to protect their children from getting involved in these savage crimes. Now, a great deal of people, especially parents, accuse violent video games as the cause of this growing epidemic. The controversy of video game induced violence has a long history, but it didn’t appear in the spotlight until the disturbing Columbine shooting in 1999, when the gunmen were said to have been addicted to violent video games. Since 1999, there have been more mass shootings and vicious crimes that have been accursed on video games. While siding with the belief that video games create violence

Many who play video games will agree, it’s easy to get addicted. Even more so is that you could get emotionally connected to that game. Those games, especially violent ones, can be an outlet of aggression for those who feel more angry. However, what happens when this outlet does not fulfil the satisfaction of letting out aggression anymore? What if someone went out into the real world and did the actions in their violent games? As you can see, this could totally happen and this is why games that simulate violence could cause aggression in some people (DO VIDEO GAMES CAUSE VIOLENCE?). This evidence shows that even if people play violent games to let their aggression out, it may not do the job and they could go do crimes out in the real world. People who do these crimes inspired by video games usually do this to let out their aggression or do it because they enjoy it. Another piece of evidence is that those who are addicted to violent games have more aggression. According to Forbes.com, “The Aurora shooter, James Holmes, the Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza, they’re all described as essentially being addicted to video games.”

It seems like everything coming out about video games is bad. A student tried to kill his fellow classmates, and he was an avid Call of Duty player. A study has been released that proves that playing video games will turn you into a criminal. The many benefits of games and gaming, such as their possible applications to education and their ability to tell more complex stories than other forms of media, are almost universally ignored. I know better, though. Between the lifetime I’ve spent playing and loving video games, and the articles I’ve found, I can tell you that video games do not cause violent behavior or thoughts.

Violent games are starting to create more cruel behavior amongst teens. These games are causing a lack of empathy, could lead to bullying, and an increase in-school fights. Many students who play these games are getting more uncontrollable. The numbers of in-school violence are rising, and there are multiple reasons involving theses games.

The journal article entitled “Kill pixels not people: exploding the fake scientific consensus on violent video games” by Ronald Bailey covers the effects of violent video games. The article defends the idea that violent video games do have a negative effect of making the player more violent or aggressive in real world experiences. The main supporting ideas mentioned throughout the article include; crime rate statistics, experiments, and knowledge of video game violence (Bailey).

“97% of US kids between the age 12-17 play video games...more than half of 50-Top-Selling video games contain violence” (Guardian US interactive team). Video games are present in almost every home around the world, their commercialization and popularity are increasing abruptly, reaching in hands of a lot of teens who can spend hours and hours just playing them. Because of the huge demand that video games have, their creators are in the necessity to make them more attracting, to increase their sales, and give more satisfaction to their consumers, in this case the majority young people. However violent video games have been blamed to be a very influential factor in child development, contributing to youth violence. In other hand different organizations and personalities had different opinions about it, arguing that violent video games had no link with social violence.

According to Forbes, video games author and political blogger Eric Kain, “More than half of mass shooters over the last 30 years had mental-health problems” (Kain). He also imparted that “people between ages 18 and 25 also tend to report the highest rates of mental-health issues” (Kain). In most cases, it is not the video games that culprits played to cause their violent behaviors, but rather their mental condition. For the rest of the cases, however, the quick condemnation on video games possessed other factors that contributed to violence. Author Karen Sternheimer detailed, “Poverty, neighborhood instability, unemployment, and even family violence fall by the wayside in most of these studies” (Sternheimer). Seldom do cases truly narrow causes down to video games, if any at all. While it is easy to accuse, we shouldn’t be quick to blame video games for offenders who indulged in them and later exhibited violence when a myriad of other plausible causes exist as well. Video games may appear to be the easiest explanation for violence, but are we answering the correct question with it? Is it possible that we are only using video games because it is the quickest solution for a much broader social complication? Morality says no: violent video games portray felonious acts and brutality, so it is obvious that those who play it are more likely to manifest

Video games have become a staple to modern to society as a large percentage of people in this day and age play these digitized games. While people may think that violent video games are a great cause of real life criminal acts, this is not the case as video games are more of a scapegoat to blame violence on. Video games are not violent, and they are truly only for entertainment.

Violent games are often played by kids, and kids are the main group of people who have desire to win. So, this mentality causes them get more and more angry, which may directly led to crimes. It is easy to have a casual effect after losing a game. That could makes people want to play another round, until they addicted into games. Children are still growing, and they start another game because they lose the last game, and this cycle will make the children more addictive. If games play more, they will feel immersive, it will give people a fake impression, and will affect the children 's growth. Also it influencing people’s time, this may cause children have less time to feel our planet, the outside world. Some of them are limited by violent video games, because they already addicted by those games. Secondly, violent behavior in reality is often caused by violent video games. People who likes to play violent video games are easy to get confused about reality and virtual. People are very focus when they play games, games could let people feels they are the character in the game. It could make people get angry, and once they finished their game, back to reality, they also may still think about the game, and want to have a chance to experience it, whether the result is as same as the game or not, and this could lead them to have a strong violent behavior in reality. Violent video games may change