TV News & "Expert" Blame Violent Games For Teen Killer

[vansau]

TV News & "Expert" Blame Violent Games For Teen Killer

Two years after Danny Petric's conviction, violent videogames are still being blamed for the young man's crimes.

Remember Danny Petric? The Ohio teenager who killed his mother and shot his father after they wouldn't let him play Halo 3? Since <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111457-Archbishop-Claims-SCOTUS-Decision-Is-Poisoning-The-Future>his conviction back in 2009, there hasn't been too much media attention surrounding his case, but it looks like that's all about to change, as a recent TV news feature has just run a feature that includes a teen killer "expert" and Petric's father blaming games for the teen's crimes in 2007 .

True crime writer Phil Chalmers, who has apparently twenty-five years researching juvenile killers, recently was interviewed (along with Danny's father, Pastor Mark Petric) by Virginia-based WTKR News. Chalmers was presumably interviewed because he covered Danny Petric's case in his 2009 book Inside the Mind of a Teen Killer, and he claims that the boy had two of the "top ten causes" of teen shootings: depression and "an obsession with violent media/videogames."

Pastor Petric backed up this argument, talking about how his son was obsessed with Halo 3, including the fact that the young man took the game with him when he fled his home in his parents' stolen mini-van. "You know, the only thing he took with him was that video game," Pastor Petric said. "Was he obsessed? Oh yea, big time!"

Pastor Petric's stance against games may seem wrong, but it's at least understandable. If my son had murdered my wife and shot me in the head after an argument about letting him play a violent videogame, I'd probably believe that the game had helped warp my kid's personality a bit, too. Chalmers, meanwhile, just seems like someone who's willing to misrepresent facts in order to further his cause and sell more copies of his book.

During the news piece, Chalmers disagrees with claims that there isn't a link between violent youth crimes and videogames: "The medical community has released a joint statement that says if children are exposed to violent media, they're gonna become violent. But they make it politically correct by saying some or maybe."

That last statement seems particularly untrue. Exactly which "join statement" Chalmers is citing isn't obvious, but it seems like it's totally the opposite of what <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/88830-Study-No-Link-Between-School-Shooters-And-Violent-Games>other <a href=<a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107804-New-Study-Finds-Violent-Games-Do-Not-Desensitize-Players>studies <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/101160-New-Study-Most-Teenagers-are-Unaffected-by-Violent-Gaming>have <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/102072-Research-Finds-Violent-Games-Relieve-Stress-and-Depression>claimed. On top of that, a quick Amazon search reveals that Chalmers's book <a href=http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Mind-Teen-Killer-Chalmers/dp/B0046LUWGQ/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1>isn't all that big a hit with readers because all it does is feature, "a bunch of vague correlations to a bunch of nonsense excuses: The devil/video game/music/movies/drugs/doctors/bullies made me do it. Pretty much everything is to blame except the kids or their parents ..."

There's a lot of things wrong with this piece of TV news, solely based on the fact that it's an alarmist puff piece that features a lot of vague accusations without any real facts to back up the claims. But, if you decide to watch the actual video footage of the story, you can see how utterly negligent it was with actual fact checking: It shows Halo 3 being played on a PS3.

Source: <a href=http://www.wtkr.com/news/wjw-pastor-petric-video-game-dangers-teen-murderers-txt,0,3326690.story>WTKR via <a href=http://www.gamepolitics.com/2011/07/21/ohio-teen-killer-039expert039-blame-games-fatal-shooting>GamePolitics

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[The_root_of_all_evil]

True crime writer Phil Chalmers, who has apparently twenty-five years researching juvenile killers,

25 years, eh?

So that means that when Phil Chalmers first started doing his research on video games that made you kill he'd have been looking at...
Jack the Nipper, The Pawn, Yie Ar Kung Fu 2 and Gauntlet II.

[HEADING=3]Phil Chalmers needs some facts, badly. [/HEADING]

 

[Caliostro]

DAT ROCK N' ROLL IS TURNING KIDS INTO SATAN WORSHIPERS! IT'S ALL THE EVIL MESSAGES!

... Yep, just as stupid today as it was 30 years ago.

The whole thing is a cavalcade of idiocy and hysteria from start to finish.

 

[ph0b0s123]

I know it has been said before, but if violent video games cause violent behaviour where is the up swing in violent crime? We have had these games for some 20+ years, so we should see some general effect. But no violent crime rates have been decreasing over this period, QED.

Edit: Crime rate for those that would argue I am making this up. http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm. Peaked in 93, deceased since then... Wasn't there some very famous violent video game released that year? One that started a whole genre. Could be argued as evidence that in fact violent games decrease violent crime with as much authority as saying it increases it. Some aberrant events like school shooting, etc don't change the overall statistics. That's enough freekonomics for one day.

 

[Caliostro]

True crime writer Phil Chalmers, who has apparently twenty-five years researching juvenile killers,

25 years, eh?

So that means that when Phil Chalmers first started doing his research on video games that made you kill he'd have been looking at...
Jack the Nipper, The Pawn, Yie Ar Kung Fu 2 and Gauntlet II.

[HEADING=3]Phil Chalmers needs some facts, badly. [/HEADING]

...Wanna bet he'll either be interviewed or called to do a special for Fox?

 

[Wolfram23]

Well, I can see disturbed people being drawn to violent media. But not all people who use violent media are disturbed... And then there's the fact that they think Halo 3 is "violent".

 

[vansau]

DAT ROCK N' ROLL IS TURNING KIDS INTO SATAN WORSHIPERS! IT'S ALL THE EVIL MESSAGES!

... Yep, just as stupid today as it was 30 years ago.

The whole thing is a cavalcade of idiocy and hysteria from start to finish.

You. I love you. Let's run away together and live together in a house built from sarcasm, dreams, and common sense.

 

[Mischa87]

True crime writer Phil Chalmers, who has apparently twenty-five years researching juvenile killers,

25 years, eh?

So that means that when Phil Chalmers first started doing his research on video games that made you kill he'd have been looking at...
Jack the Nipper, The Pawn, Yie Ar Kung Fu 2 and Gauntlet II.

[HEADING=3]Phil Chalmers needs some facts, badly. [/HEADING]

No, it clearly states he spent 25 years researching juvenile killers, not the effect of violent video games...

 

[Vaccine]

I've been playing videogames since I was tiny, currently 21, I've never been in a physical fight or had an unrelenting desire to physically or verbally hurt someone, I don't understand people trying to pin factors of physiological issues back to a very single thing.
You could very well argue it was the games, but I could very easily argue back that it was parental negligence for never understanding what their kid was playing and judging him mature enough to play with such content.

 

[Bags159]

I know it has been said before, but if violent video games cause violent behaviour where is the up swing in violent crime? We have had they games for some 20+ years, so we should see some general effect. But no violent crime rates are at record lows, QED.

This is a very good point.

Old farts gonna fart, I guess.

 

[drkchmst]

I blame morons like TV News and "experts" for teen killers

 

[Crazy_Man_42]

Mass Media's Reactions to certain events they report.
Family Shooting no videogames=disturbed mind, family and social problems, possibility of gang involvement, criminal, depression, hate etc...
Family Shooting with videogames=videogames are the source of evil and hatred and corrupted this child to kill others they must be DESTROYED!!!!!!

Mass Media you are so predictable when it comes to anything bad happening that has a videogame tied in with it.

 

[Inkidu]

"an obsession with violent media/videogames" That's kind of redundant, but in the immortal, fictional words of Iago, "There's the rub."

I do think there are people who have unhealthy relationships with violent media. However, is this the case for this kid? Probably not. He's probably a sociopath who didn't get what he wanted and thought killing for it would work.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

No, it clearly states he spent 25 years researching juvenile killers, not the effect of violent video games...

If that was true...And do look at that word "apparently"...then how is he sure that violent media is to blame? Because that would mean juvenile killings would have soared with the increase in violent media, rather than decreased.

In fact...I seem to remember a predicted skyrocketing of urban youth crime in the 1990s, around the time Phil Chalmers would have been starting this research - and around the time where violent media was just going through it's Postal, Mortal Kombat and Doom era.

In fact, in 1989, violent crime had risen 80% over the past fifteen years.

1990? Violent crimes took a massive decrease.

Homicide rates plunged 43 percent from the peak in 1991 to 2001, reaching the lowest levels in 35 years. The Federal Bureau of Investigation?s (FBI) violent and property crime indexes fell 34 and 29 percent, respectively, over that same period.

At the same time as the "worst" video game violence was being shown.

Now, if Phil Chalmers has studied juvenile killers since 1986, how would he have not known about the 1990 crime shortfall?

Source: http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/LevittUnderstandingWhyCrime2004.pdf

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

Chalmers was presumably interviewed because he covered Danny Petric's case in his 2009 book Inside the Mind of a Teen Killer, and he claims that the boy had two of the "top ten causes" of teen shootings: depression and "an obsession with violent media/videogames."

Bolded the key word there. The nugget of truth in the smoothie of sensationalized bullshit. Obviously an obsession with anything could lead to violent behavior; and to be fair, an obsession with violence would be slightly more likely to lead to violence. Unfortunately, he seems to be missing the point of his very own words. It's the obsession that's harmful, not the object of the obsession.

Damn, semi-ninja'd by @Inkidu

 

[Dalek Caan]

It shows Halo 3 being played on a PS3.

Source: <a href=http://www.wtkr.com/news/wjw-pastor-petric-video-game-dangers-teen-murderers-txt,0,3326690.story>WTKR via <a href=http://www.gamepolitics.com/2011/07/21/ohio-teen-killer-039expert039-blame-games-fatal-shooting>GamePolitics

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From that it shows that this man has no idea what he is talking about. If he was obsessed with video games then the parents should have reined him in.

 

[callfy]

Here's the solution, don't put a video game a kid is obsessed with in a box with your f$£king gun!

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I know it has been said before, but if violent video games cause violent behaviour where is the up swing in violent crime? We have had they games for some 20+ years, so we should see some general effect. But no violent crime rates are at record lows, QED.

This is a very good point.

Old farts gonna fart, I guess.

haha never heard that use of meme lingo before, might have to use that fart line sometime.


OT: Do they not understand the concept that maybe the child was troubled WAY before video games?

I have yet to see a non troubled child play video game and go into terminator mode on said friends/family...

parents, maybe find the spines you were born with and raise your child right, then video games can become an enjoyable experience for you both (I absolutely love playing video games with my brothers and we would never kill each other over such trivial garbage)

 

[Sky Captanio]

Well he must be right since every time I play Red Dead I get an urge to ride horses and wear big hats. Oh wait I DON'T! Playing a game has never made me want to do anything in real life except for maybe go to space with Commander Shepherd. Show me one bit of evidence that it was definitely the game that made him do it.