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By Tim Pollino
What is the Controversy?
• For two decades, video games have been the
scapegoat for violence around the world.
• Media makes violent video games to blame
for delinquent teens and extreme cases of
violence, like homicides.
• The problem, there is little to no proof to
support this.
Studies
• Christopher J. Ferguson, who wrote an article on the
matter for The Chronicle of Higher Education, stated
“After the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, pundits such
as TV’s Dr. Phil and politicians like Mitt Romney
stated emphatically that video games were one
cause of the tragedy. Later, in the official
investigation, it emerged that the shooter did not
play violent games.”
Video Games, Sandy Hook, and real
world Expectations
• Every time a mass murder occurs and the criminal happened to play
violent video games, the media spreads the information like wildfire,
making it seem as if anyone who plays violent video games will be prone
to be just as violent
• There have been people, like Adam Lanza, the one responsible for the
Sandy Hook shooting, have played violent video games. However, that
does not make video games the cause. Video games are played by millions
all around the world. For instance, Call of Duty 4 was on the list of Lanza’s
known video games he played. Blaming video games for his violent actions
at Sandy Hook would be the same as saying that the millions of people
who played the same game online are expected to be just as violent.
• According to Infinity Ward, Call of Duty 4’s game developing company, 4.4
million people played Call of Duty 4 on the Xbox 360 on multiplayer. Those
statistics don’t even count PlayStation 3 video game players or the game’s
usage off line. Are the people around the world really supposed to expect
that many video game players to go on a violent rampage?
What does the FBI Think?
• Even FBI profilers are in a disagreement over people blaming video games
for causing real-world violence. Former FBI profiler, Mary Ellen O’Toole
talked to CBS News on the hot topic.
• “It's my experience that video games do not cause violence,” O'Toole told
CBS News, “However, it is one of the risk variables when we do a threat
assessment for the risk to act out violently. It's important that I point out
that as a threat assessment and as a former FBI profiler, we don't see
these as the cause violence,” she added, “We see them as sources of
fueling ideation that's already there.”
In Conclusion
• Video games are not a cause for the violent crimes in the real world. Just
like films and other forms of media, video games are being used as
scapegoats for the real problems. A more likely blame would be the
factual mental illnesses that are almost always discovered to be a factor
for a violent crime, like the Sandy Hook shooting, in an investigation.
Mental illness is a major factor in people’s behaviors. If a person is
mentally ill and happens to play violent video games with the desire to act
like them, then that person was sick in the head to begin with and should
not have his or her mental illness be overshadowed by the media bashing
at the person’s apparent video game interests. It should not matter
whether or not a mass murderer happened to play video games. What
should matter in a link to violence and mass murderers would be their
family history, their mental health, and their living environment. Those are
viable causes for a violent criminal’s background towards why they would
commit such heinous crimes, not playing video games.