Crime rate is a bit of a red herring, even in the serious criminological studies. It's a figure mostly made up of data from the UCR (Uniform Crime Report, which is the most cited by news media) and more recently from the NIBRS database (which we crime scholars consider much more accurate.) Neither one is an actual indication of the amount of crime that has occured (With the exception of murder) and as such any research based on them has at least some credibility detracted from them. Also because the numbers are derived by crime per 100,000 denizens changes in population can make the figure go down even though the total number of crimes hasn't changed year from year. So don't invest too much credibility in crime rate research. (And I take everything published by the DOJ and DHS with a grain of salt.)HexaDoken wrote: The games might in fact be the reason of decrease of violence nowadays. A fair amount of crimes are caused somewhat unintentionally because of accumulation of large amounts of stress, and games tend to be good at stress relief. Less stress, less crime.
Or maybe all potential crime-comitters are now too busy playing games than planning out actual crimes.
Or maybe it's not related at all and times just change.
I dunno, just random theories here.
Okay, now that I'm done taking a dump on my peers, the crime rate has descended over the last 30 years (despite media coverage insisting or implying otherwise) and since the 1980's violent content has increased dramatically. Video games only came under scrutiny after .....well you know. Most of the paranoia surrounding video games has to do with school shootings and gangs, which aren't necessarily reflected in crime statistics. (MS 13 being one of the ones who makes everyone paranoid.) And if you've noticed, there's a lot more gang activity in the suburbs. So there is a disparity to be observed here, but I sincerely doubt video games have a strong influence in either school shootings or gangs.
