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The Ultimate Blame Game: Why People Who Say Video Games Cause Youth Crime Are Mistaken

By Rachel Schafer

Blame shifting when it comes to many societal issues has always been a way for people to wrestle with problems and find potential reasons or solutions; however, when the blame shifting begins to resemble that in the garden of Eden, we should know that we have taken it too far. Ever since Youth was established as an age group around 200 years ago, the public has been desperately trying to zero in on the reasons for this age group’s high crime rates. What would lead someone who hasn’t fully developed yet to commit a heinous crime? Where did society go wrong in raising them? Many arguments that are logical and reasonable have been put forward. Sociologists have globally announced that they do not know the true reasons for this. But the overbearing public does not like not knowing, and so it has found it’s own victim to force the blame on. Violent video games.

Now, it’s not difficult to see why these games would be an ideal target on which the public can unload all of their fear and condemnation. After all, there must be a correlation between fake violence and real violence, right? The answer to that is no. Or at least not in the way these helicopter-parents of citizens believe. Violent video games are often used as an emotional outlet for teenagers and youth. In order to get some pent up anger, frustration, or hurt out, they use these games as a responsible way to deal with their emotions without breaking anything or hurting anyone in real life. It’s the same as a youth who does boxing or judo after school. This controlled aggressive behaviour is a way for the fighter to vent without hurting anyone. The violence involved in both of these activities does not affect the everyday lives of these individuals. It is a way for these youth to let out emotions that they can’t otherwise, just like the use of music or art for many different individuals.

The seemingly alarming correlation between fake and real violence is, to put it simply, flawed. Early on in education, the idea that correlation does not equal causation is taught to student in order to try and avoid mistakes like this from being made. Articles such as The Dread Tomato Addiction paint a clear picture of this, seeing as, despite the many accurate statistics that were used to support the thesis, it is evident that tomatoes are not addictive or deadly. However, correlation being falsely presented as causation is not always so obviously clear in arguments. Such is the case with the belief that violent video games are the reason that adolescents commit crimes. One must realize that, since evidence and logic both support the fact that the causes for youth crime are intricate, complex, and not related to pressing a button that shoots little stick men on a screen, it is important to take a step back and see where people went wrong. In this case, a hasty conclusion was made. A study done by the Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family states that 81.6% of the youth offenders involved in the study did not participate in structured activities such as extracurriculars, sports, or structured hobbies like clubs. Knowing this, it becomes apparent that these youth offenders would have more time on their hands than the average adolescent. Because of this, it is reasonable and expected that they would fill their time with something else, such as video games, and, seeing as most of the good quality video games being created now are violent, it is not surprising that youth offenders would be playing these games in their excessive free time.

Many chose to argue that, because the brain of an adolescent is still being developed, they don’t have the full capacity to differentiate between these fake worlds in which crime is acceptable and the real one in which it is not. If this were the case, our society would be in big trouble. After all, if youth couldn’t differentiate between what is real and what is not, how would they be able to read books in school like Animal Farm without thinking that animals are going to revolt against humans? Or how will they differentiate between the ideas they hear in songs they hear on the radio and their own opinions about how to treat their significant other? The idea that youth aren’t developed enough to be able to differentiate between these things is patronizing at best. This mentality that teenagers are incapable of basic cognitive skills such as this is both demeaning and destructive. Yes, their brains might not be fully developed yet. But that doesn’t mean that these adolescents don’t have brains at all.

Taking a step back from all of the arguing and disagreements, one argument seems to stand out from them all. Youth crime did not begin when video games were invented. It also didn’t spike in numbers when video games were invented. Youth crime has been a societal issue since the beginning of time, regardless of youth not being recognized as a people group at that time. The age group that has been given that name has always been one of the more rambunctious people groups in societies. This was not caused by video games, there is so much more to the issue than that.

The opposition’s desperate insistence that violent video games cause youth crime itself shows the invalidity of their argument. Even world class sociologists and criminologists, such as Cesare Lombroso and Edwin Sutherland, don’t pretend to know for certain the reasons for youth crime, and they most certainly aren’t audacious enough to claim that there is only one main reason for this phenomenon. So, if some of the most intelligent people in this field are saying that there are many different causes and that one main one has not been identified yet, why are people sitting at home with their cup of coffee, their theatre degree, and their blogs claiming to know the reason? Why do they think they know better than these geniuses that have devoted their lives to the study of criminology and society? It’s because they’re scared.

In this day and age, it is taboo to not know things. Intelligence is viewed as both important and crucial in the workplace, at home, and even in social settings. We’ve all been in a situation before where we were talking to someone about a particular something and they went off on a tangent, piping out fake facts and faulty reasoning. The person simply does not want to admit that they don’t know, so they pretend to know. This toxic attitude has spread like wildfire throughout our society. People will pretend to be experts on things they don’t know about in order to be perceived in a certain way. Because of this, we have to be extra careful about what we believe and what we don’t believe. Unfortunately though, sometimes when a topic is especially controversial, arguments such as the idea that youth crime is caused by these simulations on a television screen can slip into the mixing pot of logical arguments, and, as is the case with this one, sometimes people choose to believe it because it is accessible and straightforward, unlike the complicated and mystifying facts and cases put in place by professionals who actually know what they’re talking about.

In this world of easily accessible information, it’s dangerously easy to think that you know a lot about something when you really don’t. Countless times, arguments have appeared out of nowhere, only to be widely accepted and later debunked. Fake facts such as the concept that we only use 10% of our brains or that cracking your knuckles will give you arthritis are only two of hundreds of these myths that people believe, and among this list is the idea that violent video games are the cause of youth crime. While the morality of these video games may be questioned, the causes of the high statistics for youth crime are much more complicated, sociologically involved, and, quite frankly, not carved in stone yet. Violence in video games can’t be causing this issue, as there isn’t one specific and lone cause. The whole affair leads me to think that the real crisis is that our society is turning into one big, modern rendition of The Boy Who Cried “Wolf”. Although this time, it’s The People That Cried “Real News”.