Pictured above: violent crime rates from 1973 to 2003, and the years the big consoles and GTA 3 hit.
("It's all in how you look at it..")
I'm sure I don't need to remind anyone of what happened last year at Virginia Tech. Pastor Richard Patrick of the local Abyssinia Baptist Church in Newport certainly hasn't forgotten, having a 'gun buyback' program (where gun owners could offer up their guns to be destroyed in exchange for money) last year as protest. There are all kinds of other problems in the community as well, many of which he believes result from a lack of job opportunities. Patrick has done his best to combat these, helping form programs to help youth find jobs, hosting rallies, and other things.
Now he's after video games, considering a burning rally similar to the ones held for the gun buyback. The buyback thing I think is really a great idea, I mean, it's voluntary and the purpose and symbolism is easy to see. But equating guns with video games...not too sure about that, Mister Pastor, sir. In either case, oddly enough, instead of just arbitrarily spewing out nonsense, there does seem to be genuine concern and good intentions behind his actions. Check out a bit of the Daily Press' interview with him:
Q: How significant a problem do you believe violent video games and violent rap music is?
A: It has a tremendous influence on young people and violence. That's basically all they see. Most of them try to emulate what they see, when in reality, the people they see don't even live in those communities. Some of the rappers they see on TV portraying crime don't live in the urban areas — they live in the suburbs somewhere. It's all a facade.
It really freaks me out how I agree with everything this guy says except that video games cause violence. I'll debunk this argument right now: picture this community with absolutely no video games. What do you see? A community with no violence? Significantly less violence? Doubtful. For this I point you to PBS (of all places):
According to federal crime statistics, the rate of juvenile violent crime in the United States is at a 30-year low. [And] According to a 2001 U.S. Surgeon General's report, the strongest risk factors for school shootings centered on mental stability and the quality of home life, not media exposure. The moral panic over violent video games is doubly harmful. It has led adult authorities to be more suspicious and hostile to many kids who already feel cut off from the system. It also misdirects energy away from eliminating the actual causes of youth violence and allows problems to continue to fester.
Whether we know it or not, in situations like these, we're making games play the role of scapegoat. Violent games don't cause violence, violence causes violent games. In fact, I was pondering this very thing while mowing down splicers in Bioshock yesterday evening. "Does this make me want to go out and kill people?" I asked myself. Heck no. I have absolutely no desire to do such a thing. But it's fun and intriguing to put yourself in a virtual environment as such, and I would argue healthy to explore things these games explore in a virtual environment as opposed to a real one. And I mean, what better environment in which to form your beliefs on violence? As the PBS article touched on though, family is an important factor in this equation. I'm sure if you let Grand Theft Auto raise your kids, they wouldn't turn out so hot. But to put so much of the blame on games is absurd.
Gaming censorship
