Why Violent Video Games Don't Cause Violent Behavior

Why Violent Video Games Don’t Cause Violent Behavior

Is your child going to turn into a violent murderer because of the video game he is playing? Is his life doomed by the allure, power and control video games have on his brain and his actions? I think not. Video games have become violent, bloody, ghastly battles against good and evil. Violence has been around as long as humans have inhabited the earth and long before video games. We want to blame someone for the rise in violent behavior and aggression of today’s children and games such as War Craft and Resident Evil become the root of society’s ills.

Violence is not new today, it has been passed down through history just as our culture and customs have. As far back as 76 A.D., violent games have been played only those game where not played on electronic devices; they were watched by crowds of Romans as they gathered in amphitheaters for the day’s entertainment-- a first rate bloody sporting event. Would today’s game involve a fight to the death between man and beast or between man and man? The games were real and many times extremely bloody. Many humans died and for what? They died a gory and violent death to entertain the crowds.

Violence still plagues society today. During the 1980’s and the early 1990’s there was a major rise in the juvenile violent crime rate. This rise had many experts predicting a ‘coming

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blood bath’ or a ‘crime time bomb.’ However, just the opposite took place. Beginning in the mid 1990’s the violent crime rate began to decline. At the same time violence in video games became more realistic with improvements in technology making graphics almost life like. When a person died in a video game of the past the person may have just gone off the screen today when you kill someone in a video game you may view gushing blood, a torn and bloody leg flying through the air and cries of agony. Sales of violent video games over the same time period have increased. “Call of...