Researcher: Violent Video Games Do Not Lead to Criminal Behavior

May 15, 2008 -

A researcher at England's University of Essex says that there is little evidence to suggest that video games are harmful. Patrick Kierkegaard, writing in the current International Journal of Liability and Scientific Enquiry, adds that, in his view, games do not lead to aggression.

He also suggests that previous studies linking games and aggression are biased.

As reported by Science Daily:

Kierkegaard explains... there is no obvious link between real-world violence statistics and the advent of video games. If anything, the effect seems to be the exact opposite and one might argue that video game usage has reduced real violence.

As others have done, Kierkegaard cites declines in US juvenile crime at the same time that video game sales are increasing:

Violent crime, particularly among the young, has decreased dramatically since the early 1990s. With millions of sales of violent games, the world should be seeing an epidemic of violence. Instead, violence has declined.

 

Kierkegaard said that the inherent bias found in many studies indicates a need for more details research on video games and their effects on youthful players.


Comments

Re: Researcher: Violent Video Games Do Not Lead to Criminal Beha

Jack, I like to ask you one question that would make my year. What is your response to the book "Grand Theft Childhood"

Sign me up

Hey, where can I sign up for this study he's proposing?
-"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject." -Sir Winston Churchill

Jack Thompson

HAHAHAHA! I can't wait for kim to be dissbared! We'll get to fuck with him all day!-GRIZZAM PRIME(c)is property of the U.S. Marine Corp. Wetworks Dept., and also The Incredible Hulk-GRIZZAM PRIME is not to be associated with GRIZZAM 512 or any other GRIZZAM entity under penalty of law, so sayith ZARATHOS.
Reality/////////////////////////////////////Fantasy. Seems like a pretty thick line to me...

Uh Oh

I just realised that when he gets disbarred, we're gonna be seeing a lot more of this Idiot. Oh Lord...

Uh Oh

I just realised that when he gets disbarred, we're gonna be seeing a lot more of this Idiot. Oh Lord...

Re: Uh Oh

not if Dennis disables anonymous posting or sets up an IP ban

岩「…Ace beats Jack」

岩「…I can see why Hasselbeck's worried about fake guns killing fake people. afterall, she's a fake journalist on a fake news channel」

Article

This is a HUGE breakthrough! I never thought that all the hype might be bullshit!

-GRIZZAM PRIME(c)is property of the U.S. Marine Corp. Wetworks Dept., and also The Incredible Hulk-GRIZZAM PRIME is not to be associated with GRIZZAM 512 or any other GRIZZAM entity under penalty of law, so sayith ZARATHOS.

Reality/////////////////////////////////////Fantasy. Seems like a pretty thick line to me...

One would think that a

One would think that a crusader against evil would have better things to do than abuse posters on a message board (especially ones that, by his own words, he believes to be children).

One would be wrong

Re: One would think that a

I guess in that case, one could say that Jack also condones the mental molestation of minors as well as giving convicted murderers a break in sentencing because they play video games.


He admitted the latter and continues to prove the former.

Re: Researcher: Violent Video Games Do Not Lead to Criminal Beha

Jack's failed legal career is summed up pretty nicely in his posts.  Only a very incompetent attorney would keep linking to studies that either fail entirely to prove his point, or prove the point of his opposition, while insisting that they do, indeed, prove his point.  Jack, please keep jumping up and yelling "AH HA!" with your pseudo-science (none of which any court has accepted thusfar).  Your failure as an attorney and human being never ceases to amuse me.

Our favorite nutjob

Y'know, there comes a point when you just have to have a certain amount of respect for a man who can stare at the sun and insist it's night time.

That doesn't change the fact he's a lying coward, why didn't he get pre-emptively banned in the new version? And did he need his son's help to bypass the spam blocker?

Re: Our favorite nutjob

Thats a good quote, mind if I use that?

Re: Our favorite nutjob

lying coward? i don't think so

  

deranged lunatic? most probable

Re: Our favorite nutjob

Y'know, there comes a point when you just have to have a certain amount of respect for a man who can stare at the sun and insist it's night time.

No I don't.  A person like that either needs to be corrected and educated to be allowed into society or needs to be put away somewhere to protect society.   Honestly would you join in the beliefs of a fool?

Re: Our favorite nutjob

And then I turned around and called him a lying coward, which gives a clue as to how genuine my respect was.

Re: Researcher: Violent Video Games Do Not Lead to Criminal Beha

Eat it Thompson!

Websites problems and other issues

Hey Jack? I've been having some problems logging onto your website. Everytime I type in the URL,
http://www.jackandgoliath.com, I keep getting a "Coming Soon..." site that pops up. Is this the actual htttp://www.jackangoliath.com? If so, what does "Jack Black Skin Care" and "impotence" have to do with the issue at hand? I don't think you should be mixing personal issues with your (un)professional matters.

On a more serious note though; did you fail to read anything about James Stitt? Let's take a look at some quotes from the Fayetteville Observer shall we?

"Artigues said Stitt seems at times to live in a fantasy world and she wasn’t even sure that the version of the murders he described to her was the truth. He told a different story — in which Grand Theft Auto wasn’t mentioned — to his girlfriend, according to earlier testimony."

"Artigues testified that Stitt could be diagnosed with disrupted attachment disorder and childhood trauma disorder. People with these disorders have flawed development in parts of their brains, she said, which makes it hard for them to control their emotions, control their impulses or foresee the consequences of their actions."

Now Jack, I'm no psychiatrist, but these quotes make Stitt seem a couple cards short of a full deck, wouldn't you agree? It seems like you're really trying to grasp for straws here Jack. I'm surprised that you didn't try and help the poor guy out with his legal defense. Oh, sorry about that, I forgot that you can't represent anyone at the moment since you're already embroiled in a professional misconduct case against your good name. My bad.

Well Jack, it's almost summer time so I'd suggest laying down the vitriolic rhetoric and enjoying some beach time under the sun.

Re: Websites problems and other issues

I was looking at the WHOIS for that domain (http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=jackandgoliath.com).
Can anyone verify that the email provided is actually Thompson's? If
so, Thompson might be funnier than I thought, or he is just sad and
pathetic, not sure which.

Re: Websites problems and other issues

Edit: Accidental double post.  Please ignore.

 

Andrew Eisen

Re: Websites problems and other issues

FYI, Jack's most current iteration of his "website" (in quotes because it's merely parked in his name at GoDaddy and without any content) is rescuejustice(dot)com. He's tried the website thing before but his sites are quickly hacked to death. One particularly amusing hacker had it playing "I Wonder Why He's the Greatest Asshole" or something equally hilarious. 

Re: Websites problems and other issues

Yep, that's one of his older ones.

 

Andrew Eisen

Violent Video Games Do Not Lead to Criminal Behavior

hey. does this not show up on the front page for anyone else here?

 

Violent Video Games Do Not Lead to Criminal Behavior

hey. does this not show up on the front page for anyone else here?

 

Thompson...

Once Thompson loses is license to "practice law", then he'll probably be posting more hateful, ingenuous, ignorant comments than ever before.  I guess the soon-to-be-former lawyer has nothing better to do with his time than annoy other adult gamers with his prevarications.

Thompson...

Once Thompson loses is license to "practice law", then he'll probably be posting more hateful, ingenuous, ignorant comments than ever before.  I guess the soon-to-be-former lawyer has nothing better to do with his time than annoy other adult gamers with his prevarications.

Has anybody noticed...

That the author shares the same last name as Soren Kierkegaard?

Re: Has anybody noticed...

I commented on that earlier, actually.

Almost there

These are good arguements that we've spoken before, but now that it's labelled as "research".. hopefully it would get picked up on by someone else.


Now, if only we could get a MD or PhD attached to his name.

Eww...

Who got fail all over Dennis' brand new site?!

Oh. Nevermind...

Re: Eww...

I know that video games dont lead to violence. I just knew that. Mike from jamorama guitar and buy error smart guide.

Querstionable that is even

Querstionable that is even JBT.  Even if it is most here know that they can make the perfect arguement and jackie will act the child and have a tantrum and refuse to admit he was wrong.  As pointless as trying to shout down the wind.   Better I think to avoid the wind by go indoors. 

Or in short.  Dont feed the Troll. 

As for the study itself.  As noted many times, those that do not want to see it will not.  Though even jackie should remember that all his "studies" ever supposedly proved was increased agression and agression is Not violence.  We use agression to get a job or to compete in any event etc.  

If violent crime was down which I would have thought jackie, Yee and the rest would like rather then rant against, then their would not basis for this BS.  Cannot "save us" when we are not in danger. 

Re: Querstionable that is even

I never did understand the concept of "Don't feed the troll" simply because it doesn't matter. Trolls will come with or without provoking them. The reason for this is they don't care. A person like JT, if it even is the real JT, will come with our without us, so might as well burn him down.

I just get this image of him slouched over a keyboard, drooling and snorting and just making these disgusting gutteral noises as he slaps his clawed, stiff hands over the key, just looking for anything, attempting, every hour to comment, every day as he scours Google like a hungry dog at partly-eaten carrion, just hoping he can get through his ban while talking in tongues to himself and the occassionally muttering of a intelligable words. "Naaaaa...evil games...prostitution...gay porn to Congress...phallic compensation...!" I should make a monster based off of him for D&D.

Re: Querstionable that is even

rofl, thanks, now I'm going to have to do up stats and both keep them for my next game and give them to the DM of my current game. Only problem is with the failure record, its probably going to be a CR 1/100 or so.

Ah, what a plesant surprise

Ah, what a plesant surprise upon waking up.  Thompson proven wrong by a study, and then again wrong by the posters of this Blog.  Leaving him breaking down and regressing to his inner 1st grader.

"Regressing?"

That implies he hadn't already sunk that low to begin with. ;D


--- The Mammon Industry

---
Fangamer

IMMEDIATE NEWS RELEASE –

IMMEDIATE NEWS RELEASE – MAY 15, 2008 VIDEO GAME DEFENSE HELPS SAVE NORTH CAROLINA KILLER FROM DEATH PENALTY Today a North Carolina jury sentenced a 22-year-old murderer to life in prison rather than imposing the death penalty. http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=294067 Part of Stitt’s defense was his obsessive play of the Grand Theft Auto video games, and it was obviously persuasive. It was put before the jury in a very clever fashion, and it worked: http://news.spong.com/article/15391/Murderer_Tries_GTA_Mitigation_to_Avo... Miami attorney and anti-video game activist was on CBS’ 60 Minutes three years ago asserting that this particular game franchise, Grand Theft Auto, has figured in many other murders, including the deaths of three Alabama policemen. See this 60 Minutes story with Thompson at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/04/60minutes/main678261.shtml Thompson was right then, and the sentence in North Carolina proves it. Increasingly, the criminal defense bar will be using the “video game defense” because of the video game industry’s aggressive and illicit marketing of adult games to minors. Contact Jack Thompson for more information at

Re: IMMEDIATE NEWS RELEASE –

You know, Albert Einstein once said "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." He also said "The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits."

So Jack, welcome to insanity and stupidity as all your arguements are the same ones from 5 years ago, with all of the same lame attempts to prove them right with your own concocted 'evidence', misquoted statements, and outright lies.

As a teacher I had once told me, best to have someone proof read your work before you submit it, that way they can find the glaring problems with it. In your case, have 2 dozen people proof read it.

"The Good, the Bad, and the Videogame" Reviews on the best, worst, and controversial issues of Videogames. gryphonosiris.blogspot.com/

Re: IMMEDIATE NEWS RELEASE –

Thanks for giving killers a scapegoat. Especially one that DOESN'T WORK! Was it the game, or his fucked up childhood that saved his ass? But seriously, WELCOME BACK, JACK!!

-GRIZZAM PRIME(c)is property of the U.S. Marine Corp. Wetworks Dept., and also The Incredible Hulk-GRIZZAM PRIME is not to be associated with GRIZZAM 512 or any other GRIZZAM entity under penalty of law, so sayith ZARATHOS.

Reality/////////////////////////////////////Fantasy. Seems like a pretty thick line to me...

Re: IMMEDIATE NEWS RELEASE –

Jack Thompson invented the "Video Games Made Me Do It" defence which gives criminals lesser sentences. He isn't in favor of protecting the innocent, he's in favor of protecting the criminals.

岩「…Ace beats Jack」

岩「…I can see why Hasselbeck's worried about fake guns killing fake people. afterall, she's a fake journalist on a fake news channel」

Re: IMMEDIATE NEWS RELEASE –

Not surprisingly, nothing in the articles you link to say anything about the video game argument being persuasive.  That's just you making an assumption.  In fact, here's a direct quote from the second article you linked to:

Dr Artigues (' the last witness Stitt’s lawyers put on the stand Tuesday in their bid to save him from execution') actually, "did not suggest that there was a connection between the video game and the murders".

I'd say the more likely scenario is that not everyone on the jury (it has to be unanimous) was comfortable putting a young man with severe childhood issues to death.

 

Andrew Eisen

Re: IMMEDIATE NEWS RELEASE –

This is pathetic. You even can´t give a reasonable context to the links you are posting. Every link you posted counters every one of you statements. Even in the first link doesn´t mention Grand Theft Auto was a factor on the sentence.

You have the comprenssion reading skills of a retarded child.

Reading too much into it

The Fayetteville Observer link only says that the jury unanimously voted for Life in Prison. It doesn't say why. I think it's more likely the guy's history of mental problems. As for everything else in that release, way to inject yourself into something that has nothing to do with you. Stuff like that is why you're called a massacre chaser.

Incidentally, this also has nothing to do with the news article above. Couldn't you have at least posted this as a reply to the article that actually IS about the Stitt case? Interrupting a conversation with something that has nothing to do with the conversation is rude, online or off.

Re: Reading too much into it

All it takes is one juror who thinks execution is immoral and stonewalling the rest, the others giving in just so they can go home, or to prevent them from having to repeat the whole process.

 

And stop using your own quotes as evidence jack, I might as well say you learned law from watching TV and had someone forge your degree and bar liscense and then 5 minutes later say:

 

2008, may 16, Iliad, self proclaimed master of the universe and all facts pertaining to anything commented that: "Jack thompson learned law from watching tv and had his law degree and bar liscense forged from a crackhead behind the 7-11" Game politics reports;

 

OH MY GOD IT HAS QUOTATONS AROUND IT NOW, THAT MEANS FACT, FFAAAACCCTTTT

Classic.

All this post needs is a shameless plug of his book, and you've got the groundwork for virtually every Jack Thompson statement ever. 

Also, I heard that 22 year old murderer also ate carrots and watched FOX news!  Clearly they contributed to his murderous rampage!

IMEDIATELLY NEWZ RELASE!!1111!!11!1

Jack Thompson continues his crusade against personal responsibility and the First Amendment.  Until disbarment that is.

Re: IMEDIATELLY NEWZ RELASE!!1111!!11!1

I'm surprised they didn't integrate a 'mark as spam' feature ... but I guess how else would his posts show up undeleted?

Re: IMEDIATELLY NEWZ RELASE!!1111!!11!1

there is a "report spam" link

岩「…Ace beats Jack」

岩「…I can see why Hasselbeck's worried about fake guns killing fake people. afterall, she's a fake journalist on a fake news channel」

Blah, blah, blah... what a bore!

...and in other news, bears shit in the woods, the grass is green and the sky is blue.  Now let's go to Ollie for te weather.

The weather

Ollie: "IT'S GONNA RAIN!"

Kierkegaard, huh?

Just as a bit of a random thought, I wonder if he has any relation to Søren Kierkegaard...Doubt it, but, it was an interesting thought to me nonetheless
 
Forgot your password?
Username :
Password :

Shout box

You're not permitted to post shouts.
Montetrolls are just at their absolute worst when it comes to women and feminist. You could bet good money that if the developer were male the trolls would be silent and the conversation would actually focus on the journalism.10/18/2014 - 9:18pm
MontePapa: Not the first time we've had a journalism scandals before, but the harassment never got close to this level; the difference with this scandal is that feminists are involved. Without the feminist angle, their would be A LOT less harrassment10/18/2014 - 9:15pm
Papa MidnightMonte: That's honestly rather short-sighted. As has been proven with other persons who have been targeted, if it wasn't Quinn, it would be someone else.10/18/2014 - 6:26pm
AvalongodI think that's part of what gives an esoteric news story like this real life...it taps into a larger narrative about misogyny in society outside of games.10/18/2014 - 3:29pm
Avalongod@Monte, well the trolls made death threats that came to police (and media attention). I think this is tapping into a larger issue outside of games about how women are treated in society (like all the "real rape" stuff during the last election)10/18/2014 - 3:28pm
WonderkarpZippy : Havent tried the PS4 controller. might later.10/18/2014 - 2:37pm
MonteSeirously, If Quinn was not involved and GG was instead about something like the Mordor Marketing contracts, the trolling would have never grown so vile and disgusting. There have been plenty of movements in the past that never sufferred from behavior..10/18/2014 - 1:57pm
MonteWe have seen scandel's before but the trolling has never been as vile as what we see with GG. Trolls usually have such a tiny voice you can barely notice them, but its like moths to a flame whenever femistist are involved.10/18/2014 - 1:53pm
ZippyDSMleeWonderkarp: You might be able to if you had a PS4 controller.10/18/2014 - 1:00pm
MaskedPixelantehttp://store.steampowered.com/app/327940/ Night Dive starts charging for freeware.10/18/2014 - 12:21pm
Matthew Wilsonthe sad thing is there are trolls on both sides of this. people need to stop acting like their side is so pure.10/18/2014 - 12:19pm
MechaTama31So, only speak out on a scandal that hasn't attracted trolls? I wouldn't hold my breath...10/18/2014 - 10:49am
MonteI feel like GG just needs to die. The movement is FAR to tainted by hatred and BS for it to be useful for any conversation. Let GG die, and then rally behind the NEXT gaming journalism scandal, and start the conversation fresh.10/18/2014 - 10:33am
quiknkoldand we dont have a Dovakin to call a cease fire10/17/2014 - 7:37pm
quiknkoldThe whole thing is Futile. Both sides are so buried deep in their trenchs that there isnt a conversation. Its just Finger Pointing, Name Calling, Doxxing, Threats. there needs to be a serious conversation, and GG isnt it.10/17/2014 - 7:37pm
quiknkoldI thought it was a good article. Jeff is right. I feel like GamerGate did destroy its message. I am for Ethics in game journalism, but man. so much hate. and its on both sides. I've seen some awful stuff spewed on twitter. Its a big reason why I exited..10/17/2014 - 7:34pm
Matthew Wilsonwhile he focused on gg, he did call out both sides crap.10/17/2014 - 7:18pm
Papa MidnightThat was a damn good read offered by Jeff Gertsmann.10/17/2014 - 7:17pm
Matthew Wilsonhttp://www.giantbomb.com/articles/letter-from-the-editor-10-17-2014/1100-5049/ deferentially a nice write up.10/17/2014 - 6:44pm
james_fudgeI think Evan killed it. He's a great guy and super smart.10/17/2014 - 6:38pm
 

Be Heard - Contact Your Politician