In news that will have many of us violent video game veterans go duh, a new study published in the Psychology of Popular Media Culture has confirmed — again — that there is no correlation between the rate of consumption of video games and the number of crimes in the United States. So even though Grand Theft Auto V sold about a trillion copies, it’s monumental success didn’t inspire a bunch of folks to leave the safety of their homes to embrace a life of crime.
The study was conducted by researchers at Villanova University and Rutgers University. After analyzing actual facts, their findings are as follows…
“Finding that a young man who committed a violent crime also played a popular video game, such as Call of Duty, Halo, or Grand Theft Auto, is as pointless as pointing out that the criminal also wore socks.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself, though, for some reason, I always assumed socks were banned in prisons. Don’t they like putting bars of soap in them so they can beat their fellow inmates with them, or do I watch too many movies?
If you prefer your facts a wee bit more in-depth, here’s something for your mind to chew on:
“Annual trends in video game sales for the past 33 years were unrelated to violent crime both concurrently and up to four years later. Unexpectedly, monthly sales of video games were related to concurrent decreases in aggravated assaults and were unrelated to homicides.”
So not only are video games not leading people to bludgeon the elderly for their spare change, they may be keeping those who are inclined to partake in activities like that indoors.
“Searches for violent video game walkthroughs and guides were also related to decreases in aggravated assaults and homicides two months later. Finally, homicides tended to decrease in the months following the release of popular M-rated violent video games.”
In related news, the study did find a sore lack of sweet ass foliage in video games*.
*I made that up.
For the full report, head on over to GameSpot.
