Video Games and Juvenile Delinquency

Video Games and Juvenile Delinquency

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Video Games and Juvenile Delinquency

Juvenile crime refers to criminal offenses continuously committed by a person who is below the age for which ordinary prosecution is able, mostly below 18 years. In our world today, video games have been a favorite pass time among teenagers, and studies show that you would find a small percentage not involved with them. Psychologists have concluded that there exists a relationship between aggression and violent gameplay (Michael, 2012). Games such as Call of Duty, Max Payne, GTA, and shade contain graphic killings, assassinations, robbery and torture. Studies show that most juvenile crime cases reported, the offender would seem to be engaged in constant gameplay especially the teenagers who took part in the Columbine shootings.

(Douglas, Jennifer, and Paul, 2007), investigated the relationship between juvenile crime and video games in the US by collecting four years of data from four different sources of evidence. Records of violent crime incidents were obtained from the NIBRS while the measure for gameplay from VG Chartz. The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) provided information containing the violent nature of each game and Gamespot provided ratings of video games according to their quality. Information from these sources suggests that intense gameplay resulted in certain behavioral effects associated with violent crimes. Studies show that even games rated "M," suitable for 17 years and older, were being played by children aged 11 to 14 causing them to acquire aggressive traits at an early age.

The Columbine High School shooting and the "DC Sniper" are evidence of this violent behavior learned from video games. After questioning the student, investigators discovered that they spent hours playing video games where they were assigned targets to kill. According to (Aiken, 2011), violent games help foster an identification of the player with the virtual attacker in the match. Gameplay employs a "first person" basis where the player does all the activities in the game involving possession of firearms, murder, theft, and torture. (Gould, 2011), mentions that violent television is no match for violent video games since games offer a firsthand experience in participating and learning the extreme traits. Teens would perceive that the life they live is also same as the real world making them perform actions that would see them land in jail.

 However, this might not be the case since another study opposes the notion and depict video games as a factor that reduces juvenile crime. Violent gameplay paradoxically reduces violence by increasing aggressiveness in games thus shifting them out of other activities that would yield into crime. Since they participate in violent activities in the match, there would be no need to engage in illegal activity in real life.(Feakley and Rachel, 2007) mentions that games help teenagers shift their imagination to a virtual world where they would be anything they want and do anything they want thus act as a perfect distraction and stress reliever.