How Violent Video Games are Related to Crime Rates

How Violent Video Games Are Related to Crime Rates
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How Violent Video Games Are Related to Crime Rates
Research Topic and Hypothesis
The selected research topic explores how violent video game exposure is related to crime rates. According to Cunningham et al. (2016), different researchers have studied this topic from different contexts, leading to contracting findings. This aspect has made it a divisive discourse because some sections find significant associations with others do not. Even McCaffree and Proctor (2018) recognize the need for continued research to bring clarity to the various studies. In this context, the research hypothesis is that there is no significant relationship between violent video games and crime rates among youths. The three articles selected are fundamental and relevant because they all explore the effects of violent video games on a group within the same age bracket. As a result, their results will significantly inform the conclusions of this study.
Article 1
The research topic for article one is the impact of the degree of exposure to violent video games, family background, and other factors on youth violence.
Several research questions guided the article. One is whether the time spent playing violent video games leads to violent behavior. The second sought to investigate whether the relationship strength diminishes substantially by introducing the propensity for violent media as a control. The final research question was whether other environmental and social aspects trigger a strong prediction of violent tendencies. These research questions are interesting because they would lead the research to affirm or disapprove of the association of damaging outcomes with aggressive video games.
The dependent variables in this article comprise the question of whether one “intentionally hit someone to hurt them” and “participated in fighting where their friends fought against other groups” (DeCamp & Ferguson, 2016). The independent variables are propensity to violent video games and exposure to these video games.
DeCamp and Ferguson’s (2016) article uses a survey as its primary method. It integrates diverse experimental measurements, including exposure to violent video games, the propensity to control for bias, and parental attachment, among other controls. The researchers’ approach enabled them to determine whether the violent video games exposure indices any significant associations with adverse outcomes with and without controls. This operationalization of the dependent and independent variables was critical because it informed the study’s results.
In the absence of controls, the results associated playing video games with violent-inclined outcomes. Although these associations are small, they remain statistically significant. However, introducing controlling factors eliminated this association or left them negligible. As a result, these results demonstrate that violence in video games does not predict the emergence of youth violence.
The study by DeCamp and Ferguson (2016) effectively operationalized their dependent and independent variables. This approach enabled the authors to establish the small association without controls and their elimination in the presence of controlling elements. As a result, the study is informative since one would expect similar responses from other experimental participants. Thus, one would find similar results irrespective of the context they apply. This research article significantly impacts my thinking about my research question and hypothesis. It will assist me in narrowing my research to research to a specific age group to test the idea further since this article already establishes that video games are not a significant predictor of violence in youths.
Article 2
The research topic for this article is, does playing violent video games cause aggression? A longitudinal intervention study.
The central research question for this study was investigating whether any effects arise from the frequent and routine playing of violent video games. Kьhn et al. (2017) hypothesized that there is no significant increase in a person’s aggression or a reduction in their pro-social tendencies after extended exposure to violent video games. This hypothesis is vital for the study because it assists in determining whether the priming effects of video games are short or long-lived.
The independent variable was the exposure to violent video games, while the dependent variable was the level of aggression of the participants. The researchers sought to manipulate the experience throughout the experimentation process. Their approach purposed to determine the changes in the aggressiveness among the participants.
The article by Kьhn et al. (2017) employed a randomized controlled trial study design. Moreover, the longitudinal design indicated that it continued for a significant duration to assess the effect of the tests on the participants. In this context, the researchers applied diverse operationalization techniques to the various measurements of the study. For instance, they separated the participants into different groups during the study, with some assigned the control and experimental groups. Kьhn et al. (2017) manipulated the groups to include a group that played a violent video game for eight weeks. The active control one played a non-violent game, while a passive group serving as a control did not receive any game but was tested similar to others. The author found out that there were minimal changes in aggression among the participants, which was consistent with the early predictions.
The study’s results established no changes in the dependent variable when comparing the experimental, active, and passive control groups. Kьhn et al. (2017) also indicate that no significant variation rose between the baseline and the posttest data. Similar findings stood for the two months follow-up study. Thus, these find...