Thursday, January 22, 2009

No link between violent video games and school shootings

So says a Texas A&M University researcher. Seems he has data and everything. And it seems that he doesn't like a lot of how people have studied this in the past:
Writing for the Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, Prof. Christopher Ferguson criticizes the methodology used in earlier research linking games to violence and aggression. He also points out that no evidence of violent game play was found in recent high-profile incidents such as the Virginia Tech massacre, the Utah Trolley Stop mall shooting and the February, 2008 shooting on the campus of Northern Illinois University.
The most telling bit? This:
Actual causes of violent crime, such as family environment, genetics, poverty, and inequality, are oftentimes difficult, controversial, and intractable problems. By contrast, video games present something of a "straw man" by which politicians can create an appearance of taking action against crime.
Pols whipping up a frenzy so that they can be "seen to do something"? That's got to be a first.

Via Slashdot.

3 comments:

JD said...

Let me know when the media has set the time to lynch this poor bugger for actually using fact to come to a conclusion they don't like. . .

Weer'd Beard said...

Ya know that stuff and maybe the fact that just about EVERYBODY likes violent video games (and violent movies...and porn...and guns ect) and only a scant handful of us (dispite further media hysterics) are actually violent...and most of us are fairly fun to hang around with.

That goes double if you're play Grand Theft Auto and watching RoboCop on DVD!!!

TOTWTYTR said...

Guns cause crime, Man causes (non existent) Global Warming, and now Video Games cause violence. Is no myth of the left and the lame stream media sacred?