ph0b0s123 said:
Violent crimes rates are at a record low, a trend that started in 92, the same year doom was released.
The daily mail can do as many brain scans as they like, it does not change the fact that there has been no statistical demonstrations of these supposed violent tendencies in the 20 or more years we have been exposed to violent video games. All we have had is a few deranged individuals who's defence team have tried to blame their actions on videogames. The amount of these individuals though has not even been statistically important.
Yes and no, let's not forget that massive violence is on the rise. Don't forget it was primarily young people who were responsible for those UK riots, or at least from the videos and such I was reading.
This is to say nothing of the whole "chav problem" people go off about when talking about the UK.
You have to wonder how many of these crimes are reported, and if politicians are reporting the correct statistics as they want to be seen as responsible for reductions in crime. Despite the stats it seems like the UK is at an all time high, and when it's not in response to this article people from the UK usually make it sound that way as well. The stats are probably based off of the number of convictions and people going to prison. The UK has a prison overcrowding problem like in the US with people not being sent to jail because there is no room for them as well, doesn't it? I thought I read something along those lines not too long ago. Largely in response to the first world justice system and problems with "humane" crime and punishment systems and how they are nearly impossible to support for the long term.
The point here isn't that I agree video games are in any way responsible, it's just that certain avenues of defense tend to be as bad as the accusations. In the end video games are a popular first world boogie man. By going after video games journalists and politicians create an illusion that they are doing something important, without actually having to address larger, and more contreversial issues that are responsible.
Speaking for the US for example at a minimum dealing with some of our problems would involve things like building more prisons. This of course not only requires the goverment raising money, but as heavily developed as we are those prisons go next to someone, and nobody wants a prison in their back yard. The goverment strongarming things and saying "we're going to put a prison here" is going to cause outcry, no matter where it is, and no politician wants to do that, and the news media is going to benefit more from being sympathetic to the NIMBYs.
In a more direct context, to use the US as an example, a lot of our crime comes from poor immigrants (illegal and otherwise) flowing into the ghettos and turning to crime out of desperation or simple anger over the realities of the US and what competition means. Nobody wants to be on the bottom. This is not the ONLY problem, but a big one. Throwing money at the problem doesn't usually help as anything you put into the infrastructure there is torn down in short order. You send in increased law enforcement instructed to use more "hardcore" tactics and you typically wind up with outcry about racism due to targeting specific problem areas.
A lot of the problem with violence is that the first world refuses to address it, and admittedly media irresponsibility doesn't help. After all if say a CRASH team hits a project, kills a dozen guys involved in a meth operation, the media realizes it can get better sales and response by focusing on a few of the criminals to make them seem sympathetic and the police as brutal at the very least, in cases where something might have gone wrong, or been questionable, the media has an even bigger field day. It creates a big mess where poliricians decide they don't even want to try, and instead go after things like video games.
To put thing into perspective, from the way it sounds in the UK, you have everyone concerned about the "Chav problem" with the youth, but if the police decide to crack down people also seem to start screaming about brutality, and all of a sudden all those Chavs are someone's kid with a very human face attached... much like what happens with a lot of US drug dealers and the like. The brutal drug dealer pumping poison into the community suddenly becomes a poor guy with hopes and dreams, who was smacked around for allegedly being involved in the drug trade.
