The Effects of Video Games

on the Rate of Violent

Crimes
By: James Stacey

4/11/2016

The purpose of this report is to examine the trends of video game purchasing and playing compared to
the rate of violent crime in the United States. The report will aim to create a model to show if there is
any relationship between video games and violent crime and will be able to shed light on a controversial
issue, possibly opening up different avenues to look at reducing the rate of violent crime.
Introduction

Early video games started back in 1940 with the Westinghouse display at the World’s

Fair. The computer the game was played on simulated the traditional game of picking up

matchsticks, with the goal of not being the player to pick up the final matchstick. Over the

years, video games would go from arcade machines to home entertainment devices. And until

1994, video games had been left unrated, mostly due to their content being benign and

harmless in the minds of both adults and children. It was in 1994 that this changed due to the

popularity of a new game to the market, Mortal Kombat1.

Mortal Kombat was a fighting game that pitted two opponents against each other in a

duel, using a variety of moves sets to take down their opponent’s life bar. However, the game

allowed one particularly gruesome feature at the end of the fight, the ability to murder your

opponent in a variety of ways. Dubbed “fatalities” by the creators, these moves allowed the

winner to gore, dismember, decapitate, and otherwise brutalize the losing player’s avatar as a

way of taunting and humiliating an opponent after a victory. Once Mortal Kombat was released

for the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis systems, a joint congressional hearing was started in

response to the “corrupting influence of video games on young minds”2. Since then, video

games have been required to go through the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) to

receive a rating designation before being greenlit and pushed on to the market.

Since the release of Mortal Kombat, video games over the years have become

increasingly more violent. Based on the ESRB’s rating system, which gives a rating from EC

(suitable for early childhood/young children) all the way to AO (suitable for adults ages 18 and

up) games that are suitable for the general audience, video games that are considered suitable
for the general public (rated E – Everyone) are still allowed to have minimal depictions of

cartoon, fantasy, or mild violence3. This notion that even games listed as suitable for everyone

can still contain violence, as well as the fact that some of the more violent game franchises like

the Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, and Battlefield are among the most popular among video

game players, is what drives media to propose the idea that violent video games lead to violent

behaviors and crimes.

One of the first cases of video games being linked with violent crimes was during

shooting that took place at a school in Bethel, Alaska. Alongside medical and psychological

reasons that were mentioned as possible causes for the shooting, the video game Doom, which

had various releases between 1993 and 1995, was mentioned as a hobby of the shooter4. In

various articles, violent video games are mentioned as a “source of fascination” for

perpetrators (4) and that they are “excellent teaching tools” for violent behavior5 and have

been cited as a preparation aid for terror attacks6.

A recent study performed by the American Psychological Association (APA) is now

among the leading sources for this look into violence versus video games culture. In their most

recent report the APA has found that “a consistent relation between violent video game use

and increases in aggressive behavior”7 .However, the APA also goes on to state that “there is

very limited research addressing whether violent video games cause people to commit acts of

criminal violence”7 .Other journals, like JAMA Pediatrics, have also measured increases in

aggression in younger children, with that degree of aggression falling off as the children aged8.

This report will take a look at the different types of video games that are being

purchased and played by the general public in the United States. It will examine the trends of
video game purchases based on the genre, ESRB rating, and popularity to see if there are any

comparisons with the rise or fall of violent crimes in the United States.

Data Source

Data from the Uniform Crime Reporting Program from 2013 were used to generate the

tables and graphs in regards to the rates of violent crime in the United States. The data in the

Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program comes from participating law enforcement agencies

throughout the United States and is a set method of reporting various offences, classified as

Group “A” and “B” crimes. Group “A” crimes are any reported incidents that involve criminal

homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, among other major offenses. Group “B”

crimes are defined as other types of assault that do not result in major physical harm to the

victim, such as forgery and counterfeiting, fraud, vandalism, and other offenses that are viewed

as less severe than Group “A” crimes9. In this report, a special subset of Group “A” crimes,

violent crimes, will be used to compare against the trend of video game playing and purchases.

Violent crimes will be defined as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has defined them in

the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) record description file that was sent

alongside the incident data for the year 2013. The definition set forth in this document states

that violent crimes are any crime that involves assault offenses (aggravated assault, simple

assault, intimidation), homicide offenses (murder/non-negligent manslaughter, negligent

manslaughter), kidnapping/abduction, robbery, and sex offenses – forcible (forcible rape,

forcible sodomy, forcible sexual assault with an object, forcible fondling)9.

 The data on violent crimes were taken from the UCR Program’s Level “02” – Offense

Segment section from the data. As each incident from the Group “A” subsection of incidents

are either entered in a Level “W1” – Window Exceptionally Cleared Segment or as a series of

segments labeled “01” through “06”, the data found in “02” labels were able to provide a

recount of the incident’s date, offense committed, and technical/administrative data relevant

to the reporting of the incident. In total, there were 1,201,847 offenses that were labeled as

violent crimes found within the UCR Program 2013 data.

Information on video games released during the year 2013 was provided by

GamingBolt’s list of video games released during that year10. Any video games that were found

to be released in the year 2013 were also found within the ESRB’s rating database to be

assigned a rating and a genre. The ratings assigned by the ESRB had the possible values of E

(Everyone), E10+ (Everyone 10+), T (Teen), and M (Mature). No video games sold during the

2013 year had a rating of EC (Early Childhood) or AO (Adult’s Only)3. There were varying genres

assigned to each game released in 2013 ranging from action titles to simulation titles. Titles that

did not fit a general genre classification were given the genre “Misc.” as a way of denoting that

the title did not fit a pre-defined genre as set by ESRB. Sales information for the titles released

in 2013 was given by VGChartz, a database that provides both hardware and software sales

information for video game sales. Only major title that were released for the Microsoft Xbox

360, Microsoft Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo WiiU, Sony PS3, and

Sony PS4 systems were included in the list of games, broken down by the system the game was

released for.
 The data provided by VGChartz showing the sales of video games released in 2013 only

provided information on the first ten weeks of sales after the launch date of the title, the year-

end sales totals, and the sales total-to-date. Information past the ten week mark of sales were

not included nor given by the database site. Game sales were also only tracked on physical

copies of the title. No downloadable titles, direct download copies, nor personal computer (PC)

downloadable titles through the services Origin or Steam were given11. In the given data, there

were 186 different entries for games that had an ESRB description containing the word

“violence” in any capacity as well as forty-two entries for games that did not contain the

“violence” descriptor.

Statistical Data

During the year 2013, over 85% of reported crime in the United States were a type of

assault offense, and under 15% were the other four major types of violent crimes (see Figure 1,

2). During this time period, nearly seventy-five million units of games were sold, sixty million of

those were considered by the ESRB to have contained some level of violence in them. Despite

almost 80% of video game sales falling in the category of a violent video game, the comparison

of crime rates to video game sales do not show what many media outlets report in regards to

video games causing violent crime (see Figure 3). Some of the trends between the sales of

video games and violent crime actually seem to indicate the opposite effect, that video game

sales seem to coincide with a drop in crime for a period of time after a major set of sales in

video games. In the middle of the year, video game sales dip below the one million units sold

mark around the time of March. At the same time, violent crime rates increase from nearly

twenty to twenty-eight thousand reports during that same time period. Regardless of the
reasoning behind the the increase in crime rate, those middle months between March and

August where video game sales dip down are a partial indication that the rise in violent crime is

not directly caused due to video game purchases (see Figure 4).

Popular titles such as Battlefield, Call of Duty, and Grand Theft Auto are also among the

primary concerns for the media, being the most frequently associated with mass shootings,

homicides, and sexual assaults. During the year 2013, all three of these series had a major

release, resulting in millions of copies being sold and distrubuted to the American populace.

Battlefield 4, which was released October 29, 2013, was the second highest selling shooter title

in 2013 with nearly four million copies being sold during the last quarter. During the first week

of sales, almost one million of those copies were sold. Call of Duty: Ghosts was released a few

weeks after Battlefield 4 on November 5, 2013. Its sales numbers peaked during release with

nearly three-and-a-half million copies sold during its first week and a total of just over nine

million copies sold between all platforms in 2013, making it the highest selling shooter title of

that year. At the same time, the number of crimes reported for the week of October 27, 2013

was just over twenty-four thousand reports. In the subsequent weeks following the releases of

Battlefield 4 and Call of Duty: Ghosts, the number of reports lowered by three thousand over

the next few weeks and was at a low of eighteen thousand one month after the release of

Battlefield 4 and only two weeks after the release of Call of Duty: Ghosts (see Figures 5 and 6).

Grand Theft Auto V, which in 2013 broke seven Guinness World Records in numerous

categories, including: best-selling video game in 24 hours, fastest video game to gross $1 billion,

and highest revenue generated by an entertainment product in 24 hours12. During the first

week of sales, Grand Theft Auto V sold just short of seven million copies and selling over twelve
million copies in 2013. During the weeks where Grand Theft Auto was experiencing large

quantities of sales, the number of crimes reported only show two spikes in crime: once during

the week of September 29th and a second spike on the week of Battlefield 4’s release (October

27th). Despite these two spikes, the number of violent crime reports decreased by three

thousand reports, starting at just over twenty-four thousand reports to just over twenty-one

thousand reports prior to the second spike (see Figure 7).

Other than specific franchises that are targeted by media outlets, games that fall under

the action, adventure, role-plaing, and shooter genres fall under the scrutiny of public eye.

These games which often do feature “mild” to “intsense violence,” “blood and gore,” as well as

“sexual content and/or strong language”3 are often portrayed as an aid or motivation for

violent crimes. Over the course of 2013 there were 30,010,490 action games, 296,804

adventure games, 1,727,356 role-playing games, and 19,041,812 shooter games sold, making

up just under 85% of the violent video games sold in 2013. Many of the sales, especially those

of the action or shooter genres, were sold late in the year due to the popularity of that time in

the year to release video games. All four categories experienced sales spikes at around the

same time around the months of September through November. Throughout the rest of the

year, no major spikes in sales occurred with nearly all sales figures of action and shooter genre

games staying below five-hundred thousand units sold and all sales figures of adventure and

role-playing games staying generally below fifty-thousand units sold. Throughout the rest of the

year, especially during the summer months, the number of crimes reported hit its peak value at

nearly twenty-six thousand reports. This was also the same period of time where there was a

significant lull in sales for these four genres. During the spikes in sales for these four genres in
the latter months, the number of reported crimes showed a gradual decline, starting at around

twenty-four thousand reports and dwindling down to just over eleven thousand reports by the

end of the year (see Figures 8-11).

Genres that are not generally targeted by the media, namely the games that fall under

the fighting, simulation, and strategy category of games, seem to show a different trend. For

each genre, there is a large increase in sales between the months of March and April. Each

genre experiencing the largest amount of sales during these months. Fighting games sold its

yearly high with 375,196 copies of various fighting genre games in April in conjunction with one

of the only major releases for 2013, Injustice: Gods Among Us. Simulation and strategy games

each had their yearly high in the month of March with simulation games selling 138,145 copies

in conjunction with one of its only major releases, SimCity (2013), and strategy games selling

330,828 copies in conjunction with the major release of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. All

three genres make up less than 5% of the game sales in 2013, however, during the months that

these genres sold their most number of copies also coincides with the months that the violent

crime rate shows its largest increase. At the end of the month of February, the number of

reported crimes are given as just over twenty-one thousand reports. By the end of the month

of April, the number of reports had increased to twenty-five thousand. Despite not garnering

the attention of the media, the sales for these three genres coincide with a large increase in the

number of violent crime reports (see Figures 12-14).

Statistical Analysis

The data provided by VGChartz and the UCR show a lot of data in favor and against

violent video games affecting the crime rate in the United States. Despite the media’s prevalant
nature to blame the large AAA titles and popular video game genres, those same titles and

genres show the opposite of the media’s claim. During the months where those titles and

genres have the most number of sales corresponds with the crime rate being lowered nearly

20% over the following months. Even toward the end of the fourth quarter where the sales of

the four most popularly blamed genres (action, adventure, role-playing, and shooter) are still

having very large numbers in sales, the number of reported crimes are at their yearly low. In

regards to the media’s reports and blame, it would seem that the media is targeting the wrong

genre. On the reverse side, the three genres that do not garner much media attention (fighting,

simulation, and strategy) have sales spikes that coincide with the largest increase in the number

of reported crime. Each of these genres spike in their sales right before the largest number of

reported crimes occurs.

The evidence that is provided due to the analysis of the sales of violent video games

versus that of the number of reported violent crimes is unclear. Based purely on the data, it

would seem that only fighting, simulation, and strategy games actually cause an increase in

crime. This conclusion, however, suffers from the skewed results due to the current trend in the

rate of crime in the United States. Based on reporting from the UCR over the past decade

(2003-2013), the crime rate per one-hundred thousand inhabitants has dropped from 475.8 in

2003 to the current low of 367.9 in 201313. The crime rate by has lowered by nearly 25% over

the past decade with nearly 20% of the change in crime rate occurring within the past five years

(see Figures 15 and 16). The recent trend in the crime rate can confuse the results in this study

as the rate of crime is already in a steady decline.

 Another issue with this study is due to the lack of variables included within this analysis.

The primary focus of the analysis was to determine if video game sales have a direct relation to

the crime rate. However, this type of study has many outside factors that would factor into the

study. The age, financial situation, population/environment are all factors that would affect

video game sales as well as the crime rate. The age of perpetrators versus the age of the

average video game player by distribution varies by a significant margin. Based on the UCR’s

data, there were 9,069,992 arrests in 2013. Of those arrests, 9.59% of them were made against

people younger than eighteen years of age, 56.43% were made against people eighteen to

thirty-five years of age, and 33.98% of arrests were against those who were thirty-five years of

age or older13. The age distribution of video game players is a bit more even with 29% of

gamers under the age of eighteen, 32% between the ages of eighteen and thrity-five, and 39%

older than thrity-five years old14. If video games had as much affect on the crime rate as

claimed, then the distribution of ages for the crime rate and that of the video game community

should be much closely mirrored. However, there is a much larger proportion of crime

committed in the age group under eighteen years old and between eighteen to thirty-five years

old compared to the proportion in the same age group who play video games.

The financial situation and population/environment are harder factors to measure in

this study, but they are just as relevant as the factor of age. Both of these variables are often

key issues behind why a person chooses to commit a crime, oftentimes due to finding

themselves in a bad situation or needing money. These variables also affect the purchasing and

playing ability of video games as well. Someone who cannot afford video games or is in an

envrionment where video games are discouraged will not be purchasing as many video games
in comparison to someone who has the stability to do so. Without further inquiry into these

two variables for the sales of video games and the number of reported crimes, it would be

difficult to gauge how large of an affect would be had.

Conclusion

This study between violent video games and violent crime has very mixed results in

regards to any associations between the two. It would appear that there is a negative

association with popular video game titles and genres as, from the study, the crime rate

appears to drop significantly following large spikes in sales. However, in less popular genres,

such as fighting, simulation, and strategy, crime rates appear to spike in relation to a spike in

sales under those genres. Due to many important variables not being included in the study, the

results of this analysis are slightly suspect and is lacking enough evidence to fully prove or

disprove any association.

A similar study conducted by Scott Cunningham, Benjamin Engelstätter, and Michael R.

Ward was performed in 2011. Their research looked at the top fifty most popular titles for each

week between 2005 and 2008. Just as with this study, there are questions of the study’s

validity. In their study, they observed that there was a 1% increase in violent games that

coincided with a 0.03% decrease in the crime rate15. Even though this is a statistically small

association and even smaller change in both video game sales and crime rate, their

observations seem to match the ones in this study in that for violent video games overall, there

is a decrease in the overall crime rate.

 Violent Crimes 2013
1,200,000
1,043,655
1,000,000

800,000

600,000 Assault Offenses

Other Offenses
400,000

200,000 158,192

0
Total 2013

(Figure 1)

Violent Crimes Without Assault

80,000 72,152
68,223
70,000
60,000
50,000 Homicide Offenses

40,000 Kidnapping/Abduction

30,000 Robbery

20,000 14,149 Sexual Offenses

10,000 3,668
0
Total 2013

(Figure 2)
 Video Games Sales vs. Reported
Crime in 2013
8 28

Reported Crimes in Thousands

Millions of Units Sold 7 26
6 24 Video Games Sold
22 2013
5
20 Violent Crimes by
4
18 Week
3
16
2 14
1 12
0 10
Weeks in 2013

(Figure 3)

Video Game Sales vs. Reported Crime

(3/24 - 9/1/2013)
1,400,000 27
Reported Crimes in Thousands
Sales of Video Games

1,200,000 26
1,000,000 25 Video Games
800,000 24 Sold Mar.-Sept.
2013
600,000 23
400,000 22 Violent Crimes in
Mar.-Sept.
200,000 21
0 20

(Figure 4)
 Battlefield 4 vs. Violent Crime
1,000,000 30

Reported Crimes in Thousands

900,000
25
Sales of Video Games 800,000
700,000 20
600,000
Sales of Battlefield 4
500,000 15
400,000
300,000 10 Violent Crimes
200,000 During Battlefield 4
5
100,000
0 0
11/3/2013

12/1/2013
12/8/2013
10/27/2013

11/10/2013
11/17/2013
11/24/2013

12/15/2013
12/22/2013
12/29/2013
(Figure 5)

Call of Duty: Ghosts vs. Violent Crime

4,000,000 24
Reported Crimes in Thousands

3,500,000 22
Sales of Video Games

3,000,000 20
2,500,000
18 Sales of Call of Duty:
2,000,000 Ghosts
16
1,500,000
14 Violent Crimes
1,000,000 During Call of Duty
500,000 12
0 10
11/3/2013

12/1/2013
12/8/2013
11/10/2013
11/17/2013
11/24/2013

12/15/2013
12/22/2013
12/29/2013

(Figure 6)
 Grand Theft Auto V vs. Violent Crime
8,000,000 25

Reported Crimes in Thousands

7,000,000
Sales of Video Games 6,000,000
24

5,000,000 23
Sales of Grand Theft
4,000,000 22
Auto V
3,000,000 21 Violent Crimes
2,000,000
20 During GTA V
1,000,000
0 19
9/22/2013
9/15/2013

9/29/2013
10/6/2013

11/3/2013
10/13/2013
10/20/2013
10/27/2013

11/10/2013
11/17/2013
(Figure 7)

Action Games vs. Violent Crime

8,000,000 30
Reported Crimes in Thousands

7,000,000 28
26
Sales of Action Games

6,000,000
24
Sales of Action
5,000,000 22 Games
4,000,000 20 Violent Crimes by
3,000,000 18 Week
16
2,000,000
14
1,000,000 12
0 10
Weeks in 2013

(Figure 8)
 Adventure Games vs. Violent Crime
140,000 30

Reported Crimes in Thousands

28
120,000
Sales of Adventure Games 26
100,000 24
Sales of Adventure
80,000 22 Games
20 Violent Crimes by
60,000 18 Week
40,000 16
14
20,000
12
0 10
Weeks in 2013

(Figure 9)

Role-Playing Games vs. Violent Crime

400,000 30
Reported Crimes in Thousands

350,000 28
Sales of Role-Playing Games

26
300,000
24
Sales of Role-
250,000 22 Playing Games
200,000 20 Violent Crimes by
150,000 18 Week
16
100,000
14
50,000 12
0 10
Weeks in 2013

(Figure 10)
 Shooter Games vs. Violent Crime
4,000,000 30

Reported Crimes in Thousands

3,500,000 28
26
Sales of Shooter Games
3,000,000
24
Sales of Shooter
2,500,000 22 Games
2,000,000 20 Violent Crimes by
1,500,000 18 Week
16
1,000,000
14
500,000 12
0 10
Weeks in 2013

(Figure 11)

Fighting Games vs. Violent Crime

400,000 30
Reported Crimes in Thousands

350,000 28
Sales of Adventure Games

26
300,000
24
Sales of Fighting
250,000 22 Games
200,000 20 Violent Crimes by
150,000 18 Week
16
100,000
14
50,000 12
0 10
Weeks in 2013

(Figure 12)
 Simulation Games vs. Violent Crime
160,000 30

Reported Crimes in Thousands

140,000 28
Sales of Simulation Games 26
120,000
24
Sales of Simulation
100,000 22 Games
80,000 20 Violent Crimes by
60,000 18 Week
16
40,000
14
20,000 12
0 10
Weeks in 2013

(Figure 13)

Strategy Games vs. Violent Crime

350,000 30
Reported Crimes in Thousands

28
300,000
26
Sales of Strategy Games

250,000 24
Sales of Strategy
200,000 22 Games
20 Violent Crimes by
150,000 18 Week
100,000 16
14
50,000
12
0 10
Weeks in 2013

(Figure 14)
 Crime Rate Per 100,000 Inhabitants
500
480
460
440
420
400
Crime Rate Per 100,000
380 Inhabitants
360
340
320
300

(Figure 15)

(Figure 16, Courtesy of the FBI’s UCR Program – 2013)

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