Running head: VIDEO GAMES AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

Video Games and Juvenile Delinquency

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VIDEO GAMES AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

Video Games and Juvenile Delinquency

The entertainment industry has blossomed with the advent of modern technology. A
major area that has gained popularity among the younger populace is the video gaming sector.
Video games refer to electronic games that involve human interaction with a user interface, to
generate visual feedback on a device such as a TV screen or a computer platform. Juvenile
delinquency is conduct or act perpetrated by a person who has not attained the statutory age
prescribed by a republic, which is a violation of the law and were it had been an adult, they
would have been arrested and charged in a court of law. In recent years, a higher proportion of
youths has experienced arrests although some scholars are quick to argue that it may be a
reflection of a more aggressive criminal justice system and zero tolerance policies rather than
changes in juvenile behavior. Social scientists have been studying and debating the effects of
media violence on behavior since the 1950s and particular emphasis placed on video games since
the 1980s. The issue is especially more relevant today because games are more realistic and
bloodier than ever and because most juveniles play them at some point in their life. Video games
have gained particular interest because they require more active involvement on the part of the
consumer than other media partly because of the creation of first shooter games. Call of Duty
and Halo 4 can be fronted as examples of violent video games.
A host of new research has begun to clarify what can be said or not about the effect of
violent gaming. Playing video games can result in short-term mild aggressive behaviour.
Aggression is an action performed with the intention of hurting others (Anderson and Bushman
2002). Moreover, juveniles who develop a gaming habit can become slightly more aggressive as
measured by clashes with peers, for instance, at least over a period of a year or two. The Social
Learning Theory of Albert Bandura (1997), states that aggressive responses are learnt through

VIDEO GAMES AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

experience or observation of the behavior of others in real life. A closely related theory is the
Script Theory, which suggests that we learn from social experiences. Though the research on the
causal effect of video games on aggression has carefully been fronted in decades of experimental
work, socio-psychological theories explaining this empirical relationship is relatively new.
Bushman and Anderson (2002) present a psychological theory of such a link that they call the
General Aggression Model or GAM. It hypothesizes that violent media, including violent games,
increases a person's aggressive tendencies through a social learning that occurs simultaneously to
the exposure itself.
Violent media causes the person to develop mistakenly certain cognitive indicators that
are important in interpreting social a situation before and after it has occurred. GAM
underscores, in other words, that violent video games cause aggression by biasing individuals
towards forming incorrect beliefs about a relative danger that they are in. Perception biases
towards hostility, therefore, can, in turn, cause the person to respond in flight or fight fashion. It
may also permanently alter an individual's point of view creating an aggressive personality as an
outcome.
The frequent prolonged exposure to video games leads juveniles to adopt violent traits.
The attributes may be based on the games characters, the cartoonish machismo, the hair-trigger
rage or the dismissive brutality. It is however not proven, empirically that at what point does the
habit of gaming becomes so consuming that it trumps the socializing effect of other significant
figures in a juvenile's life.

VIDEO GAMES AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY

References
Albert Bandura (1997). Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliff NJ. Prince Hall
Albert Bandura, D & Ross, SA (1961).Transmission of Aggression through Imitation or
Aggressive Models
Anderson C & Bushman B (2002). Human Aggression. Annual Review of Psychology 52, pages
21-52
Anderson C.A & Bushman B.J (2001). Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior,
aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, psychological arousal and prosocial behaviour. A
meta-analytic review of the scientific literature. Psychological Science 12,353-359
Ferguson, C. J., & Olson, C. K. (2014). Video game violence uses among vulnerable
populations: The impact of violent games on delinquency and bullying among children
with clinically elevated depression or attention deficit symptoms. Journal of youth and
adolescence, 43(1), 127-136
McLeod, SA (2011). Bandura-Social Learning Theory. Retrieved from
www.simplypyschology.org/bandura.hm.tl