Violence versus videogames
The next time someone claims videogames cause violence, show them this graph:
(From here.)
There are only three possible explanations:
1) Videogames decrease your chance of committing violent crime, probably via some form of catharsis.
2) There is no causal effect between videogames and violence. The drop in violence is do to other changes in fields like economics and law enforcement in the studied time frame. The most likely scenario, in my opinion.
3) Videogames do indeed increase your chance of committing violence, but do so to such a small degree that those other environmental factors play a much, much larger role. So any efforts to censor violent videogames would be better spent fighting poverty, improving education, improving law enforcement and other methods of preventing violent crimes.
Actually, the ultimate conclusion of any of those scenarios is to not censor videogames but prevent violent crimes through means that actually, you know, work.
That's my logical analysis of the data. Aesthetically, I love the fact that Doom is right there at the point where violent crime drops right off a cliff.
(From here.)
There are only three possible explanations:
1) Videogames decrease your chance of committing violent crime, probably via some form of catharsis.
2) There is no causal effect between videogames and violence. The drop in violence is do to other changes in fields like economics and law enforcement in the studied time frame. The most likely scenario, in my opinion.
3) Videogames do indeed increase your chance of committing violence, but do so to such a small degree that those other environmental factors play a much, much larger role. So any efforts to censor violent videogames would be better spent fighting poverty, improving education, improving law enforcement and other methods of preventing violent crimes.
Actually, the ultimate conclusion of any of those scenarios is to not censor videogames but prevent violent crimes through means that actually, you know, work.
That's my logical analysis of the data. Aesthetically, I love the fact that Doom is right there at the point where violent crime drops right off a cliff.