Quite to the point, television, film, pop music and video games share in common a proclivity to promote that which yields prosperity. Thus, there is little regard from the computer gaming industry for indications that "a meta-analytic review of the video-game research literature reveals that violent video games increase aggressive behavior in children and young adults." (Anderson & Bushman, 353)
In spite of this, revenue for video game produces revolves on role-playing titles such as World of Warcraft, which promotes fantasy world combat, simulation games such as Grand Theft Auto, which glorifies violence and antisocial behavior, Halo, the simulated first-person shooter game, and Madden Football, which portrays in detail the often brutal sport of football.
Connecting absorption of such media with the commitment of violent crimes remains a challenge however. Famously, the two minors responsible for the massacre at the Columbine High School in 1999 were noted for playing such ultra-violent computer games as Doom, in which players uses various high powered weapons in order to hunt...
When the two boys acted out many aspects of the game on their schoolmates before turning weapons on themselves, this case the relationship between video games and crimes in a glaring light. That notwithstanding, metropolitan statistics drawing a meaningful, empirical or causative relationship between violent video games and crime is difficult if not impossible to establish. Nonetheless, most clinically intensive research does reveal that individual aggression and the probable tendencies toward crime thereby produced are inspired by video game violence.
Works Cited:
Anderson, C.A. & Bushman, B.J. (2002). Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggressive Behavior, Aggressive Cognition, Aggressive Affect, Physiological Arousal, and Prosocial Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Scientific Literature. Psychological Science, 12(5), 353-359.
Harding, a. (2009). Violent Video Games Linked to Child Aggression. CNNHealth. Online at http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/family/11/03/healthmag.violent.video.kids/index.html
