I have no idea whether this story is actually valid, but if it does turn out that Cho Seung Hui had no violent games among his possessions, do you think the media will investigate the theory that exposure to fantasy violence helps prevent real-world violence, by providing an outlet for aggression with no actual consequences? Somehow I doubt it.

(Of course, as I argued at the end of Everything Bad, it's pointless either way to argue these things from individual cases. The much more relevant point is that teen violence had an unprecedent drop across the country just as the games were getting much more explicitly violent in the late 90s and early part of this decade. That still doesn't mean there's a correlation either way, but it does suggest, to me at least, that we don't have to panic about the impact of screen violence.)

Comments

[Joost Schuur]

As a gamer (as well as someone who works in the industry), I'd love to see JT and his ilk's claims proven wrong, but unfortunately all we know from this evidence list is that he probably didn't have a console system with GTA still stuck in the driver in his dorm. It does list a PC and several drives, so for all we know, he could have Steam installed and bought Counterstrike digitally.

[Joshua Frank]

In Freakonomics, they suggest that the decline in crime starting in the early 90's was caused by there being many fewer people of peak crime-committing age, which was brought about by Roe v. Wade. I haven't looked at the primary studies, but it seems very plausible to me.

[dk.au]

Steven, aren't you saying there is a correlation (between the introduction of more violent games and lower rates of teen violence) - just not necessarily a causal link?

[James Governor]

Interesting op-ed piece in the Guardian this weekend (cant find link), arguing there might be a link between the anti-depressants Hui was using and his behaviour. we know that some prescribed "anti-depressants" made suicide more likely. is is such a stretch to wonder whether it was the drugs, not the guns or vidoes, which helped tip Hui over the edge. Invariably spree killers kill themselves at the end of the slaughter.

[evden eve nakliyat]

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[killired]

i just started reading 'everything bad is good for you' today. i work as a substitute teacher, have 3 young boys who looooooove to wii so it's only fitting that i read this book! can't wait to finish it!

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[Chris Grayson]

Joost Schuur wrote:
- In Freakonomics, they suggest that the decline in crime
- starting in the early 90's was caused by there being many
- fewer people of peak crime-committing age, which was
- brought about by Roe v. Wade. I haven't looked at the
- primary studies, but it seems very plausible to me.

Yes, I'm more inclined to consider Steven Levitt's theory: Those demographically most inclined to commit crime, by a large percentage, simply stopped being born.

Stephen Johnson wrote:
- That still doesn't mean there's a correlation either way,
- but it does suggest, to me at least, that we don't have
- to panic about the impact of screen violence.

True. It might not show that a causal relationship exists between the games and the crime rate going down, but it could reasonably be said that it proves that ultra-violent video games have not made crime go up.

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