Texas Juvenile Probation Chief Blames Games, Rap Music For Youth Violence

[Andy Chalk]

Texas Juvenile Probation Chief Blames Games, Rap Music For Youth Violence

The Chief Juvenile Probation Officer of Tom Green County in Texas says rap music and video games are to blame for the rise in violent behavior among today's kids and young adults.

Violent crime in the United States has declined rather dramatically since the early 1990s, a span of time that just so happens to coincide with the mainstreaming of video games. Did the 1993 release of Doom finally teach us the error of our ways? I don't want to confuse correlation with causation, but facts are facts, and the U.S. is a less murderous nation than it was 25 years ago.

But Mark Williams, the Chief Juvenile Probation Officer of Tom Green County in Texas, isn't about to let facts get in the way of his narrative. In an address to the San Angelo Rotary Club last week, Williams spoke out about the malaise that has gripped the current generation of youth and what he believes is responsible for it.

He touched upon the challenges faced by single, young mothers and the problem of broken homes, which deprive children of proper role models as they're growing up. That leaves them susceptible to the influence of modern culture and its obsession with sex and violence, which are particularly prevalent in rap music and video games.

Games, in fact, have surpassed rap music as the primary threat to the hearts and minds of today's youth. "Rap music used to be the subject of my soapbox speech until I found out what's in today's video games," Williams said. "In my position I think I know what's happening in the minds of our youth, and then I get exposed to more things reaching them and it just blows me away."

Williams said that while adults today may look back fondly on games like "Mario Brothers Double Dash" or Legend of Zelda, modern "shooter" games are desensitizing kids to the dangers of sex and violence. He even went so far as to compare them to actual drugs. "As the body becomes physiologically accustomed to a little lift from a gateway drug, the person graduates to harder drugs," Williams said, "I see video games as something where once the thrill of playing a video game is gone, what's the next step?"

Williams mentioned four specific games in his speech that he said are "wildly popular" with youth and also especially dangerous: Mortal Kombat, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Postal 2 and Grand Theft Auto V. He also warned people in attendance that Postal 3 is coming out "in a few weeks," despite the fact that it actually launched in late 2011. And he dismissed studies showing that playing violent video games does not translate into violent behavior in the real world.

"There's a juvenile case headed through our local courts right now. The defense lawyer's argument is based upon the fact that the kid was unduly influenced by violent video games," he claimed. Of course, rather like the launch of Postal 3, that particular defense strategy isn't exactly news either [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/85950-A-Brief-Look-At-The-Videogame-Defense].

Source: San Angelo Live [http://sanangelolive.com/news/crime/2014-03-22/head-tom-green-county-juvenile-probation-warns-about-influence-violent-video]


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[Charli]

Old people say what?


...I have no follow up to that, that was the joke. Same old wafflenuggets saying the same old waffle to the same old audience.

 

[Rad Party God]

I guess someone is stuck on the early 90's and just came out of his cave, trying to sound current.

I mean, I hate rap music, but listening to it doesn't make me want to murder something... unless it's from 50 Cent or Kanye West, making me murder something for how terrible they are.

 

[ihavetwo]

The endless cycle of Video Game blame.
This is less surprising than EA being nominated for Worst Company again.

 

[Barbas]

Tom Green County, you say? That was unexpectedly interesting when placed side-by-side with what the C.J.P.O. of T.G.C. said. I hope he doesn't see the printer scene from Office Space, then...he's liable to have a heart attack.

 

[RJ Dalton]

I love how quickly they forget that they said the same thing about rock and roll, and before that it was jazz. We're always looking for an excuse that allows us to not admit to bad parenting.

 

[Alpha Maeko]

86% of the 7 Americans we polled in the nursing home next door said video games cause violence. How could they possibly be wrong? STATISTICSLOL

 

[Sniper Team 4]

He touched upon the challenges faced by single, young mothers and the problem of broken homes, which deprive children of proper role models as they're growing up. That leaves them susceptible to the influence of modern culture and its obsession with sex and violence, which are particularly prevalent in rap music and video games.

Did anyone else catch this? Perhaps you should find a way to fix the home, or get the mother help, or do something about the actual cause. He literally pointed out that he thinks these kids already have problems before video games and rap music, yet he doesn't bother with those. Because God forbid you hold the parents responsible for raising their kids. You think these games cause problems? Fine. Don't let your kid play them. His entire argument just went out the window with me when he acknowledged that there's a base problem but he refuses to touch it.

 

[omega 616]

Spoiler: They are blaming music for violence?

How many times has this site alone done the "so and so think games cause violence" story 'cos fuck me, it's almost a monthly thing! What next? "an 86 year old former plumber in a retirement home thinks these vidja games are satanic!".

Come on now, some out of touch old guy thinks the latest scapegoat for why the youth of today are fucked up, are things that have been around 40 or so years? What game where they playing when a war was being started every 5 minutes? IRL risk? Age of empires? Total annihilation: kingdoms?

Like his opinion matters, just like most peoples, it doesn't.

 

[zalithar]

So does the right to bear arms now extend to: pistols, rifles, shotguns, assault rifles, and thermonuclear-flying blue turtle shells? Cause I'm pretty sure that 'Mario Brothers double dash' (<--da FUCK?) has caused more than it's fair share of violence with that little tragedy.

And what the hell is with that list of 'wildly popular' games? by the time each subsequent game in the list was released, the one before it would have fallen out of the 'wildly popular' category.

I really wish that one republican had not been forced out of public eye; I mean the one that said "we have to stop being the stupid party!" he was one of the few that actually knew that things were going wrong.

 

[Brian Tams]

I have no expertise in this area, yet because I'm on an internet forum, I shall pretend I do anyways.

Yeah, I don't think so. I think this is a case of someone thinking correlation=causation when it in fact, doesn't.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

It doesn't matter what decade it is, there will always be dumb people blaming everything on things they don't understand. That's what being a social conservative means. If you're socially conservative you're basically announcing to the world that you don't understand that the world is constantly changing and you're making no effort to adapt to those changes. Instead, you live in your bubble, thinking that things should be the way they were when you were growing up.

 

[Andrew_C]

Jitterbugging and Ragtime music are going to ruin the youth of America, I say! It's outrageous that our children can go to dance halls and listen to immoral music like

Spoiler: Struggle Buggy

and dance to it! Ban this sick filth!

 

[Xan Krieger]

Reminds me of when Elvis and the Beatles were gonna cause satanic cults to spring up in every neighborhood. Every generation has something that's gonna cause things to get evil. Rap, rock and roll, video games, movies, same accusations different era.

 

[Pogilrup]

"I see video games as something where once the thrill of playing a video game is gone, what's the next step?"

After too many games that seek to overload the senses, then I turn to more subtle and sublime games.

Then after I get tired of sightseeing, I get back into the fray.

Heck really good games contain elements of both, one can begin some action packed battle or just walk around explore and chill out. The Fallout series or the Elder Scrolls series for example.

Oh and personally, I don't think videogames increases the probability of committing violence. But perhaps it might affect one's thought processes towards conflict resolution or willingness to compromise.

 

[Decamper]

Mortal Kombat, Modern Warfare 2, and Postal 2 are popular with youth today? Really? Aside from all the other dumb shit he said, where did he get these three games from? Mortal Kombat is from '92, I really doubt it's all that big among the kids these days, the CoD masses moved on from MW2 4 years ago, and I don't remember Postal 2 even being very popular when it first came out. I'll give him GTAV, I guess.

 

[Nooners]

Fun fact: the WALTZ was once seen as a dance so scandalous that it could only be done in brothels. Why? Because the bodies of the dancers were being pressed too close together. The point of this little fact? I'm sure you can all see it yourself.

 

[martyrdrebel27]

what a pointless, small minded douche. whatever, i quit paying these people much attention. their generation is slowly checking out, and their opinions won't matter much longer.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

*sigh* right...sure you don't want to add Marilyn Manson to that as well? Good grief.

 

[Arawn]

Everytime I hear one of these stories that song from South Part pops into my head (http://youtu.be/bOR38552MJA?t=1m22s
Then I think about all the other tragedies that have occurred and figure what video game could have possibly sparked them. What game had the retired cop watched before he killed the other man in the movie theater for text messaging? What about that guy that shot his wife? The lady that drove into the sea with her minivan? Arguments like this seem to have a singular purpose; explain why we don't understand why younger people do anything. Rather than say we've lost touch or don't know what youngsters think. They're doing things because of outside influences beyond our control.