Video Games And Gun Violence Essay

Since the beginning of the 21st century, video games have only become more graphic. On a near-normal basis, television airwaves are flooded with mass shootings at the hands of violent, enraged gunman. Violence and shootings affect hundreds, if not thousands of innocent people every year as well as the nation’s stability as a whole. “Seemingly with each mass killing- in places like Aurora, Colorado, Newtown, Connecticut, or Roseburg, Oregonattention refocuses on the role of violent media in such tragedies. Sociologists and psychologists continue to focus on the ways in which video games lead to aggressive behavior” (Newman, 2017, p. 138). Through research, reports often indicate that many mass killers were addicted to violent video games. Shortly after the Columbine High School massacre, both Eric Harris and Dylan

Klebold, the students who killed 18 and wounded 24, had been devotees of “DOOM”, the groundbreaking first-person shooter game first released in 1993 (Goldstein, 2015).

Countless children and youth are exposed to gun violence through video games. Additionally, gun violence can leave lasting emotional scars on children. According to Garbarino, Bradshaw, and Vorrasi, “Children exposed to gun violence may experience negative short and long-term psychological effects, including anger, withdrawal, posttraumatic stress, and desensitization to violence” (Garbarino, Bradshaw, & Vorrasi, 2002). All of the negative outcomes listed above can feed into a continuing cycle of violence.

Video games are often criticized for their negative, and often violent effects on those who play them. While there is evidence that playing violent video games increases aggressive behavior, findings have been mixed regarding the effects of

video game violence among males versus females. Many experiments conducted have generated mixed results in the influence of violent video games. In one such experiment, fourth and fifth-grade boys and girls were asked to play either Pac-Man (low-violence game) or Missile Command (high-violence game). The children’s play during the course of the experiment was carefully monitored and coded for aggressive content. According to Bartholow and Anderson, “The results showed that girls who played the high-violence game were more aggressive than girls who played the low-violence game. The effects of game play on boys’ aggression were in the same direction but not statistically significant” (Bartholow, Anderson, 2002). Even outside of the video game universe, males are portrayed as naturally more aggressive and intensely competitive, as compared to females. According to Hartley and Hartley, “Males are reported to be dominant and aggressive, while females are supposed to be passive, submissive, and affectionate” (Hartley, Hartley, 1952, p. 211). Although evidence for a causal relationship between violent video games and aggression has been accumulating, it is currently unclear whether video game effects are similar in males and females. “Potential sex differences are theoretically important because although males are more aggressive than females in general, environmental cues to aggression (e.g., media or video game violence) may be equally powerful in both sexes” (Bartholow, Anderson, 2002).