Logic Ties Violent Video Games To Violence

The “Violence Prevention in Pennsylvania” report by the Joint State Government Commission’s Advisory Committee on Violence Prevention admits that “a direct causal link between violent video games and violent behavior has not been established to date,” but it perpetuates the scapegoating of video games through logical fallacies, guilt by association, inaccurate paraphrases, false equivalencies and the blatant omission of the reasoning of one of its own members.

[Anon1974]

This witchhunt is no different from when comic books were the cause of all teen violence, then Dungeons and Dragons, then Saturday morning cartoons, then Heavy Metal or Rap music. Unstable individuals are unstable. It doesn't matter if they're into Call of Duty, Gwar or My Little Pony. Videogames aren't the cause of mental health issues, but examining how the mental health system in the US is failing people would make too much sense, wouldn't it now?

Poverty is also a major, known factor when looking at violent crime statistics, but I guess it's easier to point at the videogame boogie man (despite the amount of studies that exist that conclude there's no link) then to actually deal with societal problems. God forbid politicians actually start addressing real problems...

[PoSTedUP]

very well said. the only thing i would like to add, upon doing my own research is:

to put it short, Cali's crime rate across the board from say 1990 would increase as the polulation increased, every year. but Right when GTA:SA released in 2005, the Crime rate started to Decrease Every Year Across Every Crime even as the polulation Continued to Increase!!! (dispite rape only fluctuating very slightly, then continuing to decrease with all the others). and if GTA:SA would Influence Any Place In The World (if violent video games Really caused violence) it would no doubt be CaliForn-i-A.

the facts are there. i would only guess that this is because 1.) more people were indoors playing GTA. and 2.) GTA shows people that there are consequences for their violent actions (e.g. cops gunning you down, punching someone and them punching you back or pulling a gun etc.).

[hazelamy]

where are all the reports that link owning a gun to shooting somebody with a gun?