Introduction: Violence in Video Games

Ever since their exponential rise in popularity over a decade ago, the video game industry has consistently been criticized for exposing graphic and violent content to their users. Many have argued that the violence portrayed in video games is linked to aggressive behavior.

Although numerous research studies have been conducted to investigate this claim, all have varying conclusions. For example, the chart above references University of Chicago David Walsh, Ph.D's study: "Video Game Violence and Public Policy". Dr. Walsh's study will not be addressed on this blog, but rather provides an example of a result from only one of countless studies conducted on violence in video games.

This blog will investigate a handful of those research studies as well as other scholarly sources in an attempt to draw more explicit conclusions about the effects of violence in video games on users aged 18-22 in the United States. This explicit conclusion, as explained in this snippet from a micro-documentary about violence in video games below, is very complicated and is one in which researchers are still trying to solidify today.