Are video games the leading cause of violence?

In 2019 alone, there have been 283 shootings in the USA (as of 1st September). Due to
this, many people have decided that the main cause for this has been because of video
games and films because of all of the violence which occurs in them. Games which are
completely revolved around shooting such as Call of Duty have supposedly influenced
shooters to commit these crimes.

In this radio show, we intend to bring in guests that are passionate about this topic and
that have views that either support or disagree with the statement. We will ensure that
we research this topic heavily so that we can hold a conversation amongst ourselves and
present facts and statistics that provide evidence for both sides of the argument. This
show will mainly contain investigative journalism, where we intend to explore and
discover different views live and finish the show in a place where the listener can make
their own judgement based on the evidence that we have provided them.

Theories and influences

The bobo doll experiment
The bobo doll experiment is an experiment
created by Albert Bandura. The idea of this
experiment was to have young children watch
aggressive adult behaviour towards the doll, and
then the children would be left alone in the room
and these children would then be aggressive
towards the doll as they were influenced by the
adult. This links back to video games as people
who play these first person shooters with
excessive amounts of violence will be inspired and influenced to perform violent acts themselves
in the real world.

The James Bulger case

Linking this back to the UK, the James Bulger case from 1993 where young boys Jon Venables and
Robert Thompson led 2 year old James Bulger out of a supermarket and stoned him to death on a
rail track has also been theorised as a result of influence. It has been thought that the two ten year
olds were heavily influenced by television and films to commit the crimes that they did. It has also
been said that another reason these boys committed these crimes was due to poor parenting.