Video games may be curbing crime in the U.S

[kilenem]

Does anyone else remember seeing the graph that shows this?

Or am I delusional from sleep again?

Though as a PS user, I find the term 'Xbox Effect' mildly insulting, it's not like there are two other manufacturers of gaming consoles... Oh, wait[/q

I don't believe it. This is as ridiculous as claiming that video games are a catalyst for crime. games don't cause crimes, and they don't stop them either.

Why is it that we can't hold people accountable to their own individual actions without giving the credit or blame to some medium. Bored teenagers are not the main factor in crimes, moral upbringing and social and economic situation are main factors.

criminals and law abiding citizens were here long before games ever came into existent.

A lot people play video games for stress relief I don't see why that wouldn't cause people to be less aggressive. Socail and Economics are a big part but even with Detroit going bankrupt and has a complete crap education system. Detroit is no where near its murder rate when it was the Murder Capitol of the world. The averages of crime in Detroit are going down.

Or it could be that people are fleeing Detroit slowly depopulating it... also what the hell is there to steal or maim in a empty bankrupt city?

A lot of teens do stupid things because they can't get a Job. Also the poorest people who probably commit the crimes would still be in Detroit or Jail. This could be because Detroit has a lot of low class criminals but I walked by one construction cite with like 8 slabs of new Marble that wasn't secured or guarded. In my head what criminal wouldn't steal that. That something that someone would have to have Knowledge of but they are stealing industrial air conditioners from closed businesses .

 

[O maestre]

The article also goes on to talk in depth about concurrent social changes like demolishing of project housing and online illicit drug trade instead of street corners. Not attributed to games but rather societal and technological changes.

Knocking down the projects solved some problems created other problems. You had the drug dealers from one area have go into another area and compete for territory. Also Section 8 replaced was the replacement but these people couldn't take care of their housing. My neighborhood was right next to the projects and went down in quality pretty quick.

I'm not saying the Projects shouldn't have been torn down because their was child prostitution in the one near my house. The projects were also in Detroit So when they took them down no one had money to develop the area so it was just a vacant lot for almost a decade and they promised the people who lived their they could return. It would've been nice if there was some foresight into what problems can happen when close down the projects.

Also people still sell Dope in the streets. When I was in high school in 2009. While I was waiting for the bus sitting on a bench in Downtown. This crack head sits next to me, opens up his book bag up, takes a nap sack out starts selling crack. I can see the police from where I'm sitting. At first I wanted to warn the dude because times are tough but I thought again. He's selling crack right next to a school student he needs to go to Jail. Walked away from him and 5 minutes later he was arrested. If you look like your not from Detroit people will try to sell you weed because a lot people from the suburbs come to Detroit for drugs and prostitution.

My god man, what happened to Motor city. I am not even from the US so I am always shocked at how bad things have gotten. I feel for you man I really hope that Detroit can pull through somehow. Very depressing to hear about the state of things over there.

 

[kilenem]

Or maybe crime is increasing videogames because people don't want to go outside. Think about that.

I don't believe it. This is as ridiculous as claiming that video games are a catalyst for crime. games don't cause crimes, and they don't stop them either.

Why is it that we can't hold people accountable to their own individual actions without giving the credit or blame to some medium. Bored teenagers are not the main factor in crimes, moral upbringing and social and economic situation are main factors.

criminals and law abiding citizens were here long before games ever came into existent.

I do see where you're coming from. These studies rub right up to our confirmation biases while the studies claiming that video games cause violence/anti-social behaviour go right against them.

There is a chance that the OP is onto something in the sense that teenage boys/young men may be now more encouraged to stay inside. That may have some effect in the same way that, as some studies claim, India's birth rates started to fall once television was introduced. The theory goes that television became the primary form of entertainment:

http://www.geocurrents.info/population-geography/indias-plummeting-birthrate-a-television-induced-transformation

http://thebreakthrough.org/index.php/voices/michael-shellenberger-and-ted-nordhaus/how-electricity-and-tv-defused-the-population-bomb/

Oh yes the TV/entertainment effect is undeniable, a reversal of the blackouts and the curfews baby boom effect during the second world war.

But still do not think that it is comparable. In both of the above cases sex was used as an entertainment substitutes. Like you said it is tempting to have validation like this, but we can't have it both ways. We can't embrace the same arguments now that they favor us and throw logic away. Violence does not happen just because of boredom, certain individuals are predisposed and prone to violence, the causes can be many and can be complex. These predisposed anti-social individuals will find a way act out their tendencies regardless of what media they consume. That was the factual argument we made and the defenders of free speech made, when the likes of Jack Thompson blamed the worlds ills on our hobby. It was a sound and logical argument then and it still is now.

Lets look at extreme metal music, we have on one side a vast majority of law abiding people who enjoy it and claim that the music mellows them out. Then we have a small minority in the scene that embraces extreme right wing politics, murder and burning of churches. Do we blame metal for the crimes? do we praise metal for the mellow headbangers? or do we blame/praise the individuals for their morals or lack there of?

Media doesn't raise kids, parents and society does, the future generation will be a reflection of our efforts in instilling a good ethical foundation. If anything creative media exists solely to itself reflect the zeitgeist of its consumers.

Media does have a negative affect on people because I'm Black and I live in Detroit with 90% black population. My dad would watch fox news and play Rush Limbaugh on the radio because he wanted to know what conservatives were thinking. When you listen to that for years you start to think all white people are racist. Which isn't the truth. I finally met some white teachers that weren't insane and they were cool.

 

[Qvar]

snip

You are killing the statician (is that the correct word for somebody who handles statistics?) in me with that reckless assumption of that if it doesn't affect everybody, it doesn't affect anyone.

 

[Someone Depressing]

Playing WOW all week isn't going to lower crime.

It's going to make you an overweight, lonely, depraved person who lives on doritos and Chinese takeaways run by annoyed conservative Americans.

It's making one issue slightly easier to cope with, but making others much worse. Including cyber crime.

Also, the Subway in Britain is a little healthy, compared to the American version. So, yah Subway.

 

[COMaestro]

Still waiting for a source, on the Mexican drug cartels being foiled by video games.

You must have misread what I was saying about violent individuals, I was most dinitley making a case for free will, and that we are not muppets subject to the media we consume, for good or for ill.

Is true or false that society, all societies contain individuals with predisposition towards acting on violent tendencies?

Charles Manson twisted the Beatles into an apocalyptic vision of racial warfare, the Beatles of all things.

We can't embrace the same arguments now that they favor us and throw logic away. Violence does not happen just because of boredom, certain individuals are predisposed and prone to violence, the causes can be many and can be complex. These predisposed anti-social individuals will find a way to act out their tendencies regardless of what media they consume. That was the factual argument we made and the defenders of free speech made, when the likes of Jack Thompson blamed the world's ills on our hobby. It was a sound and logical argument then and it still is now.

Lets look at extreme metal music, we have on one side a vast majority of law abiding people who enjoy it and claim that the music mellows them out. Then we have a small minority in the scene that embraces extreme right wing politics, murder and burning of churches. Do we blame metal for the crimes? do we praise metal for the mellow headbangers? or do we blame/praise the individuals for their morals or lack there of?

We hold the individual accountable of his/her actions be they peaceful or malicious actions, not their hobbies. People may find inspiration for their actions in the media but not controlled by it, from a batman spree killer to someone gamifying learning process for kids with learning disabilities.

I may buy that petty nuisance crimes may be affected, but not violent crime and that is what the article was talking about, that is another beast entirely, and cases dealing with violence are treated differently as you may know. This is merely diluting what should be on the forefront in the discussion about violent crime, ethics, upbringing, parenting societal culture and so forth. Not hobbies.

I don't know what to say about your last disclosure though, congratulations?

I think you are missing the point. The point of the article is not that video games are lowering violent tendencies in people, which would be the flip of the argument used to attack video games. The point is that video games provide an outlet, or something ELSE for people with violent tendencies to do, rather than go out and commit violent crime.

For example, before videogames, was there a form of interactive media that could simulate violence? I can't think of one. So, in order to let out aggression and feed these violent tendencies, a person would need to leave the house (or commit domestic abuse of some sort, but just run with the example), wander the streets, maybe group up with some friends. They could then bully people on the street, maybe assault a person or two and take their wallets, molest a woman, smash up some cars, etc. Television does not provide the interactive nature of a videogame where the player can feel like THEY are the ones doing actions like this.

Enter modern gaming systems with somewhat realistic graphics and interactions. Now you can go on virtual killing sprees, wreck cars, all kinds of violent stuff without leaving the comfort of home. It's not the same, and people with more extreme violent urges will not be satisfied with such, but it can be enough for your average angry-at-the-world person to let off some steam and not actually need to physically perform such actions. It's not CHANGING the person at all, it's just giving them a different outlet for their tendencies.

To quote you again, "These predisposed anti-social individuals will find a way to act out their tendencies regardless of what media they consume." That's just it. With videogames they are able to act out their tendencies using the media, rather than doing it in real life. They aren't any less violent than they were before, they just didn't have to physically commit crime in order to express that violence. They did it though a game instead.

To be clear, I'd want more numbers before declaring this to be total fact, but I find it to be an extremely plausible scenario.

 

[Captain Anon]

you know it's weird, the University of Glasgow did a study of over 11,000 kids and found nothing to support "Video Games causes Violence" idea but did found that watching TV for 3 or more hours under the age of 7 lead to a small increase in behavioral problems and apparently this went worldwide and the whole internet yet crap like this is still happening and is still making the news

 

[kilenem]

The article also goes on to talk in depth about concurrent social changes like demolishing of project housing and online illicit drug trade instead of street corners. Not attributed to games but rather societal and technological changes.

Knocking down the projects solved some problems created other problems. You had the drug dealers from one area have go into another area and compete for territory. Also Section 8 replaced was the replacement but these people couldn't take care of their housing. My neighborhood was right next to the projects and went down in quality pretty quick.

I'm not saying the Projects shouldn't have been torn down because their was child prostitution in the one near my house. The projects were also in Detroit So when they took them down no one had money to develop the area so it was just a vacant lot for almost a decade and they promised the people who lived their they could return. It would've been nice if there was some foresight into what problems can happen when close down the projects.

Also people still sell Dope in the streets. When I was in high school in 2009. While I was waiting for the bus sitting on a bench in Downtown. This crack head sits next to me, opens up his book bag up, takes a nap sack out starts selling crack. I can see the police from where I'm sitting. At first I wanted to warn the dude because times are tough but I thought again. He's selling crack right next to a school student he needs to go to Jail. Walked away from him and 5 minutes later he was arrested. If you look like your not from Detroit people will try to sell you weed because a lot people from the suburbs come to Detroit for drugs and prostitution.

My god man, what happened to Motor city. I am not even from the US so I am always shocked at how bad things have gotten. I feel for you man I really hope that Detroit can pull through somehow. Very depressing to hear about the state of things over there.

There are three main things. First would be Racism. The hate that Detroit received as being a major city with a 90% black population was stupid and halted are growth . The perfect example of this is when Sports illustrated commissioned a statue for Joe Louis. Joe Louis is considered one the greatest boxers of all time and is from Detroit. A white artist made the just a Joe Louis fist in the Center of Downtown Detroit. People from Detroit were pissed because it was only a fist and not a full statue. People from Detroit wanted the statue remove and a new one. White people were pissed because they thought it was a Black power fist in the Center of Detroit. So people from Detroit let the fist stay just to spite the pissed off white people. Every know and then some idiots try to paint it and write white power. This is how black people from Detroit and white people form the Suburbs interacted with each other.

The second thing would be Crack. Crack hit a lot of urban areas pretty hard including Detroit So the government decided to impose some the harshest drug sentences on crack sending a lot people to jail for long periods of time. Kids were growing up with out parts and when they came out they couldn't get a job because they had a record. Then they went back to crime to make money. Unfortunately the U.S was also fighting a Cold war in South America and its suspected they use Cocaine to partially fund this war. The C.I.A Set up a drug deal between Rick Ross and the Contras its apart of the famous Iran Contra scandal. Rick Ross was the largest crack dealers on west cost. A small plane landed in the middle of the night a Detroit airport with no documentation. There were something like 9 kilos OF Coke and 9 guys who spoke Portuguese. Turns out one guy was apart of the F.B.I and he was let go while the other 8 were deported. There weird things happening like the C.I.A working with Noriega then the F.B.I arresting him for being the largest Drug lord in history.

The last thing was NAFTA. Detroit was hanging on a thread with a already diminished manufacturing economy but NAFTA allowed companies to build things over seas and for cheaper and send it back to the U.S. It put a lot people out of work. NAFTA was so bad it put Mexicans out of work in Mexico. Detroit has no industry because its not financially feasible to build things in America when can pay someone for less.

 

[NearLifeExperience]

This article by NBC says there is a "Xbox effect" Causing youth to stay inside and play video games instead of going out side and causing crime. http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/04/22177302-are-the-xbox-and-unleaded-gas-helping-keep-you-safe-from-violent-crime?lite

So suck it Politicians who blame video games on corrupting the youth. Although I do think it may lead to bad eating habits when Taco bell, mountain dew and Doritos are always the sponsors for a popular video game. I am happy that Uncharted was sponsred by subway at least some gamers are being advertised to be healthy

Just because some article claims a certain fact, doesn't mean that it's automatically true. You're just grasping for straws here, OP

 

[JoshGod]

Yes, but I'm questioning how much games are actually stopping crime, maybe briefly when a GTA is released, but mostly games won't stop much crime the idea that a youthful teenager who would offend stops completely because he has games to play is silly.

Why exactly is it silly? I don't know if they do or they do not stop crime, but it sounds worth of a deeper analysis to me. Along all human history people has had their bread and circuses to keep them entertained and not thinking about rebellion. It's not so farfetched that viodeogames would be this generations circuses, or the "opium", as Marx put it.

And yes, youth gang violence is highly related with rebellion and identity-seeking (mainly the seek of a social status away from the society that initially rejected them. Inside those gangs, crime is THE way of gaining status).

If someone is an offender playing a game won't stop them, it might delay them a day or two while they finish it but eventually it'll end. Since when has gaming been an alternative way to gain status?

 

[Qvar]

If someone is an offender playing a game won't stop them, it might delay them a day or two while they finish it but eventually it'll end. Since when has gaming been an alternative way to gain status?

Excuse me but as a professional of the field I have to tell you that you have no idea what you are talking about.

Somebody is an offender? People aren't offenders just because. They may or may not be depending on the circumstances, which are among others education, social factors, biology and, of course, opportunity (lack of vigilance, motivation and desired target). Some are of more influence than others depending on the subject and the type of crime (eg organized crime has less to do with biology than passionate crime.)

I've said that peoples aren't offenders without reason, and yes, this goes even for psychopaths, if you were thinking about that. But explaining why would take some time so I won't explain unless somebody is interested on that.

Not only does staying at home reduce the social factors of having all your gang "friends" pressing you in order to commit cocky crimes, but also reduces oportunity: As some people have already pointed, if I expend my boredom at house playing videogames, I'm much less likely to see a suitable victim for any crime I would be likely to commit than if I'm at the street with the rest of the gang, drugging ourselves or whatever.

Of course not, videogames aren't a way of gaining social status. I've never said that. Look, the occidental society is alienating. Specially at the US, with their american dream, "everybody can get rich and be the next president", etc... What a load of lies. According to Merton the result of the alienation are several possible reactions, including ritualism, conformity, apathy, rebellion, etc.
Which leads me to saying that doesn't provide ritualism, riatualism/rebellion is being changed for aparthy as a mean of leading them away from crime. Not ideal, but works.

 

[Jusey1]

Video games are quite good for people and can improve specific skills... So... Don't see anything wrong with them.

At the very most, someone might an idea from a video game (Though they can get an idea from ANYTHING ELSE in the media as well!). The only reason why people will do such mean and violent things is cause of personal issues... Or they are sexual arouse by violence, which is rare.

As for Subway... I hate subs honestly but I do love the Personal Pizzas from Subway.