Video games lead to crime? Only if you’re stupid

By Christopher Poon [Media Editor]

Remember way back in 2001, when Grand Theft Auto III was released? It was that game that critics said it would turn gamers into prostitute-killing, car-stealing, drug peddling social scum. Then nothing really happened and they shut up. And then Vice City was released the following year, and critics said that it would turn gamers into prostitute-killing, car-stealing, drug peddling social scum. And then nothing really happened again. Now just repeat that for a couple of years and here we are in 2010.

A lot can change in a decade, but a lot can also stay the same, and when it comes to drawing a link between video games and real-life crime, the latter seems to be the way things have gone.

There are those who believe that video games have some sort of mystical hold over people where they find themselves unable to resist acting out the suggested themes of video games. No video game company is more familiar with that concept than Rockstar Game’s Grand Theft Auto franchise.

In June 2003 45-year-old Aaron Hamel and 19-year-old Kimberly Bede were passing through the Great Smoky Mountains in the U.S. when their car was fired upon. Hamel was killed and Bede was seriously injured, and the shooters turned out to be two stepbrothers, aged 14 and 16-years-old.

A few months following the incident, the families of the shooting victims filed a suit against Rockstar Games (the makers of the GTA franchise) as well as the stores and companies related to the sale of the game. They claimed that playing GTA inspired the actions of the shooters, and that the families be properly compensated. Rockstar fired back saying that the video game’s content falls under the First Amendment’s free speech clause, and shortly afterwards the case was dropped.

This is just one example of numerous cases where shooters and victims have attempted to lay the blame on Rockstar Games for inspiring real-life crime. The theory goes that by allowing players to partake in crime via their video games, they suddenly feel the need to act it out. It should be noted that in nearly every case that cites GTA or video games as a cause or influence for the purported crime, the perpetrator is almost always identified by the defense as a victim of being influenced by a game. Nevermind that these are simply sick and idiotic individuals to begin with.

Where’s the outrage when someone who watched Scarface or the Godfather end up being drug dealers? Or for that matter, how many convicted killers have ever seen a movie or read a book where a murder takes place. Odds are that they’ve come across whatever act is they’ve committed in some way or form prior to actually doing it themselves. However, you never see films, books or television demonized in the same way that video games have been.

When it all comes down to it, crime is bad, that’s why it’s called crime. But to use video games as a scapegoat seems juvenile at best, and only serves to misdirect attention on the true cause of the problem; that the individuals committing the crimes are deeply troubled and need actual help rather than a way off the hook.