Video Games, Murder and Mayhem
"Writing today in the International Journal of Liability and Scientific Enquiry, Patrick Kierkegaard of the University of Essex, England, suggests that there is scant scientific evidence that video games are anything but harmless and do not lead to real world aggression. Moreover, his research shows that previous work is biased towards the opposite conclusion."and
"However, Kierkegaard explains, there is no obvious link between real-world violence statistics and the advent of video games. If anything, the effect seems to be the exact opposite and one might argue that video game usage has reduced real violence. Despite several high profile incidents in US academic institutions, "Violent crime, particularly among the young, has decreased dramatically since the early 1990s," says Kierkegaard, "while video games have steadily increased in popularity and use."Also just in: the White Album did not cause Charles Manson to kill people. Some people are just batshit fucking insane, and can be made psychotically violent by things like sea shells and walnuts.
That said, I would like to see more scientific data on why images of heads being blown off are perfectly acceptable, but the sight of a naked body turns people into simpering culture nannies.