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
hehe
I noticed this too, my intial reaction was "the philosopher?"
Quite frankly I am not impressed by either side of the argument, crime goes down when video game sales go up, its reminds me of now infamous research that stated that shark attacks went up when ice cream sales went up. Conversely I find it hard to believe that video games cause violent crime based on the evidence of statistics alone. In general I am uncomfortable with what is social science being touted as hard scientific facts.
remember kids, a correlation is not a causation.
Re: hehe
I was waiting for someone to play the devils advocate, to some extent I agree, although I believe this is much more close than ice cream sales/shark attacks, I see your point, but THAT is just silly.
I still do believe that video games had to have had SOME effect, and I think its a large one, on youth violence declining, even if im playing the devils advocate game to the fullest extent, are there other factors? Of course, are video games neccasarily the cause of the decline? Maybe not, but at least it works to somewhat debunk the theory that they cause youth crime rates to rise.
Either way, its SOMETHING.
Cool, just at the right time
Bias
Once again Mr. Thompson, you accuse any accredited dissenter of being paid off... by who? The evil underground legue of video games makers? The military? The FBI?
Anyways, Kierkegaard (for a moment I thought he was the existentialist) is not saying that your brain scans and studies never took place. He is commenting on their BIAS and questions their scientific validity.
In light of the above,
I call troll...
Send it to Jack Thompson\\\\\\\'s medication nurse. I\\\\\\\'ll put the apologies in my drool cup.
Because something doesn\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t seem \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"right \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" here....
Re: In light of the above,
Re: In light of the above,
HAHAHAHA! Dude, you're effing awesome! This shit is better than TV!
-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.
Hmm.
You know, in the 16 years I've been raising my boy, not once has he displayed any negative traits that could be blamed on video games.
However... every time he reads something about Jack Thompson online or sees him on the news, he becomes a bit foul-mouthed and extremely angry, generally going on a tirade about people who have no clue trying to force him to fit into an invalid stereotype.
In general, Mr. Thompson (and I am 100% sincere about this)- you have actually been the cause of more extreme behavior from my son than any video game ever has.
Of course, I just credit his sense (and warn him to be sure he's using appropriate language in the appropriate venues), but it gives one food for thought.
Indirect cause.
If that's the case, then video games could be indirectly causing your son's anger! Video games make Jack Thompson angry, which causes him to act like a whackjob. Thompson's whackjobbery elicits angry outbursts from video gamers! Clearly it's this middle man that is the crucial causal link! People play video games and are perfectly fine, but everyone in contact with Jack Thompson develops violent tendencies!
Ban Jack Thompson! For the Children!
Re: Indirect cause.
How immature
Mr. Thompson, please stop
your name goes into the name
your name goes into the name field, not the comment.
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」
What?
Re: What?
This is why we never let him
This is why we never let him post, he gets really abusive and really childish, very quickly. I'm more or less amazed why Dennis even let him post given his past track record with us. We try to have civilized debates with him but this is what it degenerates into.
In short, Jack Thompson is a troll.
You know its extraordinary
HERE ARE THE FACTS, YOU
HERE ARE THE FACTS, YOU LYING LOSERS! THIS \\\\\\\"RESEARCHER\\\\\\\" CAN\\\\\\\'T EVEN GET HIS CRIME STATS RIGHT! UNBELIEVABLE. SOMEBODY GET DENNIS MCCAULEY A DARVOCET:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Increasing violence among teenagers and other youths appears to have contributed to a nationwide crime spike, the Justice Department said Tuesday.
Gangs and gun violence are partly to blame for the rise in crime that is on pace to increase for the second straight year, says Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in a prepared speech.
In response, the Justice Department is pledging to spend nearly $50 million this year to combat gangs and guns, and will push Congress to enact new laws to let the federal government better investigate and prosecute violent crime.
FBI data from last fall show violent crimes, including murders and robberies, rose by 3.7% nationwide during the first six months of 2006. Those findings came on top of a 2.2% crime hike in 2005 — the first increase since 2001.
Re: HERE ARE THE FACTS, YOU
Jack,
Your 1st grader argument style must win you lots of points in court. Oh, wait! You lose every court case!
First off, your link to statistics are from CANADA, a place that is, at best, fictitious.
Here's a snippet from a link from the United States:
SOURCE: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cvict.htm#summary
(See how easy that is? I just destroyed your argument with 2 minutes of fact checking on an official government site.)
Re: HERE ARE THE FACTS, YOU
Jack,
Your 1st grader argument style must win you lots of points in court. Oh, wait! You lose every court case!
First off, your link to statistics are from CANADA, a place that is, at best, fictitious.
Here's a snippet from a link from the United States:
SOURCE: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cvict.htm#summary
(See how easy that is? I just destroyed your argument with 2 minutes of fact checking on an official government site.)
Re: HERE ARE THE FACTS, YOU
Yes, if you compare today with yesterday then violent crime is indeed on the rise. However, if you were an intelligent human being, you'd look at it in the proper context and examine the crime rates over the last several years. If you did that, you'd see that the general trend is a decline and a quite steep decline at that. The upticks you are citing are upticks from an already low point.
I'm not saying an uptick in violent crime isn't a concern but it certainly does nothing to back your claims.
Andrew Eisen
Re: HERE ARE THE FACTS, YOU
You guys keep giving him leeway with the lie that youth crime even went up in the first place, many examples have been given so far to disprove his entire argument that youth crime is on the rise in the first place! I love that even if what he is saying WERE true, which it isnt, then we could still disprove it, but we shouldnt even be getting that far, we still havent gotten past the lie that youth crime is up at all.
So jack, I have a question, when you were going around to schools playing the debate game, how come you werent calling them losers and jackasses? Was it because they had auditoriums full of people including the parents you so frequently lie to? TV cameras? What was it?
Or was it because your entire "crusade" is a complete facade, and you are just a collosal hypocrite.
Re: HERE ARE THE FACTS, YOU
Wow, Mr. Thompson, you are on fire today. Anyways, the text you are showing us doesn´t even name any for of entertainment. No books. No music. No movies. No games. Nothing.
Just gangs and guns. You just proved to us videogames has nothing to do with real life crime.
Don´t cry...
Let's try an official source
Headline even says that "serious violent crimes committed by juveniles has generally declined since 1993."
1993, by the way, is the same year Mortal Kombat first came out. I agree, it's still too high, but there's not even a correlation with video game sales, much less cauation.Mr. Thompson, where in that
Ok this just proves that
Ok this just proves that gangs are a problem, not video games. Ok crime is up, I'm seeing nothing pertaining to video games as the reason for blame here. Last I checked gangs are usually formed from a bad home life and constantly being out on the streets doing no good in the first place anyway, not cause they were sitting at home playing video games or "murder simulators" as you call them.
Re: Ok this just proves that
Here it is, ace. Read it
Here it is, ace. Read it and weep:
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/070718/d070718b.htm
The crime rate among young persons aged 12 to 17 rose 3% in 2006, the first increase since 2003. The rise was driven by increases in mischief and disturbing the peace. The rate of young people accused of homicide was the highest since 1961, when data were first collected.
And the researcher\'s source is what, Hal Halpin of ECA?????
Jack Thompson
THOSE ARE CANADA'S STATS!
Jeezus titty f#cking Christ, it's like you're trying to get us to pitty you...dumbass.
-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.
Re: Here it is, ace. Read it
Come on Thompson, you're not that stupid so stop acting like it.
These stats are for Canada, not the US. Even so, the 3% increase is an increase from an already low point. Just look at the graph in the article you linked to. See the downward slope from 1993 (about the time people started complaining about violent video games)? Yeah, overall youth crime has been on the decline. A slight uptick (again 3% up from the previous year's already low point) does nothing to prove your point. Especially when said uptick was caused by "increases in mischief and disturbing the peace" and not violent crime.
Also, I'm not really impressed by a high rate of kids accused of homicide.
Andrew Eisen
Edit: Spelling
Re: Here it is, ace. Read it
Stats
Unfortunately...
"The property crime rate dropped 4% from 2005, as the rate of break-ins fell 5% to its lowest level in over 30 years. The rate of motor vehicle theft also declined, down 2%" (isn't a big part of GTA stealing cars?)
Given that the average gamer is 34 years old (I am 32), I should be more concerned about adult crimes... But they are down... hmmmm...
Also, good analysts, like me!, never use one data point to prove a trend. For example, mischief is DOWN 6% since 1996. Disturbing the peace is up overall, but then what is the definition? Noise complaints? Yeah, I am really worried about that!
Next, Criminal Code violations are down 16% since 1996. Hmmmm..
Last, "Since the introduction the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) in 2003, the proportion of youth formally charged by police has dropped from 56% in 2002, pre-YCJA, to 42% in 2006" Wow! So there are more laws to charge people with, but the rate is DECLINING.
Stats are actually really cool Mr. Thompson, but as my boss would say: "Giving metrics to stupid people produces stupid interpretations". I would love to see your ANOVA analysis of the crime information Statistics Canada has.
JohnnyD - Proud Canadian - Senior Metrics Analyst
Mr. Thomspon, perhaps you
Mr. Thomspon, perhaps you didn't notice the NEGATIVE SLOPE at the end of that graph? That means a decline.
Plus the fact this study is less recent than another person posted, let alone what this article gave.
Was there really a need for the caps lock in that other comment, Mr. Thompson? We're not six years old, Mr. Thompson, you know this.
Good Job JT, except thats
Good Job JT, except thats Canada's statistics and a year old at that.
In fact, the latest violent
Re: In fact, the latest violent
That is a BLATENT lie, and even if it were true, which its NOT youth crime has been on the decline for 20 years, funny enough the same time games have been on the rise, so even if it DID go up, (which it didnt) that still wouldnt mean anything. Hell I could say something fantastic like, that is proof that video games brought out the best in humanity the world has ever seen and the youth crime statistics from the past 20 years prove it, and now its just peaked so there is nowhere to go but back up.
But A: only you would say something so insane based on so little.
And B: its STLL more credible a connection than any pitifull not even as good AS anecdotal trash evidence you have ever supplied to your biased choir.
Re: In fact, the latest violent
Isn't it interesting...
Isn't it interesting that Jacko makes these claims with no real proof to support it? For your viewing perusal:
http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/04/gaming-real-vio.html
And
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/tables/viortrdtab.htm
The numbers do not lie...unless the Justice Department is conspiring with the video game industry, just like the DoD. >_>
Also, since this is turning into an 'OMG MY EXPERTZ DISAGREE' war, I feel I must post this. Enjoy, Jacko.
http://cad-comic.com/comics/20051012.jpgRe: Isn't it interesting...
No, no, if you're bringing up comics, *this* is Jack http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comics/20050808.jpg
Source this claim or it
Site this supposed source of
Nice try. All the Harvard,
Re: Nice try. All the Harvard,
Are you really Jack Thonpson?
Re: Nice try. All the Harvard,
Re: Nice try. All the Harvard,
Re: Nice try. All the Harvard,
You really suck at this, Thompson.
First of all, there are no video game violence brain scan studies out of Harvard. I've been asking you for years to cite one and you've consistently failed to do so. Maybe I've overlooked it but until you can back up your claim, I will firmly believe you are wrong or have the wrong school.
Indiana State: This study used an MRI to look at the difference between the brains of normal kids and kids with disruptive behavioral disorders when playing violent games. It concluded that kids with DBD have less activity going on in the frontal lobe (decision-making and behavioral control) when playing violent games. The games used? A racing game and a James Bond game.
A more recent study from the same school had about 44 kids play Need for Speed: Underground and Medal of Honor: Frontline for 30 minutes. It concluded that the ones who played MoH had more brain activity in the emotional arousal area.
Michigan: A look at the brains of 13 males who played an unspecified violent game showed a "brain activity pattern that may be characteristic for aggressive thoughts."
Not a damn one of these studies proves anything Thompson claims they do.
Oh and while the APA did release a resolution in '05 that recognized the possibility that violent video game play may increase aggressive behavior (and made suggestions like teach kids media literacy and do more research) it absolutely did not find what Thompson often claims they did.
All you have to do is read the info Thompson cites to see he's full of it.
Andrew Eisen
Re: Nice try. All the Harvard,
Darling Eisen: The brain scan studies out of Harvard pertaining to violent entertainment, and the brain scan studies out of Indiana University and Michigan State deal with video games. John Murray is the key guy in the Harvard studies and one of our experts in the Alabama case. The Harvard studies apply to video games as well, Murray says, who is repeatedly published in peer-reviewed science journals. If you, you jackass, can\'t find any of this on the Internet, then you are even more inept than I thought you were. Do your own research, which, of course, you don\'t want to find. By the way, get a dose of honesty. Or get some help from the American Psychological Association, which found the causal link between these games and teen aggression in August 2005, or are you unable to find that report as well, Andy?
Jack Thompson
Re: Nice try. All the Harvard,
Re: Nice try. All the Harvard,
Yeah, the APA study. The one I read through and performed multiple text comparison scans and found not a single claim of yours is supported by it. That study...
You are in serious need of your own advice, learn to tell the truth, and get yourself checked by a certified psychologist. Your sociopathic actions along with your pathalogical lieing does not help anyone, nor does it set a good example for the "kids" you supposedly are trying to protect from the evils in this world.
I'll be checking pubmed for publications by John Murray and reading them as I get the time to. Without having read anything of his, I'm still confident that nothing he's published actually supports your views. I've seen your type of tactics far too often with the fanatically religious, including the Creationist/ID and anti-vaccine groups. You simply quote-mine an article, and lift the parts you can twist into your own meaning when taken out of context, then claim the entire article supports your views even when the article in full context completely disproves your statements. I'm getting rather sick of seeing crap like you claiming anything and pointing to articles like this, which at best is morally wrong and contemptable. My suggestion, as it always has been, is either change your ways or get some SPF 10,000 for your afterlife as you're current actions have you on track to goto a place where warm doesn't even begin to describe it.