Video Games and Juvenile Delinquency (Essay Sample)

Video Games and Juvenile Delinquency
Joseph V. Somba
Brainy Writers
Video Games and Juvenile Delinquency
In the recent years much concern has raised regarding the rise of youth crime. With many expressing doubt on the credibility of video games towards mentoring of future lives among the youth, psychologists have argued that video games have a correlation with aggression. The violence in the video game playing triggers antisocial behavior and, therefore, considered to be negatively influential. Basing data on samples taken from different institutionalized delinquents, it has been proved that limiting screen time for young delinquents can be a way to the right track in the rehabilitation of young lawbreakers. Many video games are characterized by sexual immorality, drug addiction and abuse, violence and all sorts of crime. However, not all video games are misleading because some are purposely educational. This essay covers different aspects of negatively influential video games and how they can be of destruction to the young.
Violence depicted in many video games can be too much of a destruction of morals especially to the gullible youths. The issue is more relevant today since the games are more realistic and bloodier than ever. Video games stir hostile urges in the short term. An example of video game fans who went ahead an extra mile and acted out of some dark digital fantasies are the young men who opened fire at the movie theater in Aurora, Columbine High School and in some other bloody massacres. The more the habit continues the more the likelihood increases that one will commit a crime. A video game will make one act more rudely than they really would, especially a few minutes after playing the game. The screen time for young people should be limited with video games being mostly nonviolent.
Yet another factor, though not the largest but also not the least, is sexual violence against women witnessed in many video games. This causes evil urges among the youth especially the ones who spend a considerably large percentage of their time before the screen. Long-term exposure to sex-stereotyped video games triggers sexual harassment among men and, therefore, proving that mass media’s role in socialization is supporting violence against women. Video games with the theme of female objectification encourage men to view women as sex objects. They behave more inappropriately towards women in social situations.
Video games with unusual characters and unusual behaviors cause psychopathy among kids. They’ll try to act out senseless fantasies just for the fulfilment of what has been built up in their minds and in the process they may find themselves breaking the law. The psychopathy caused among kids has a correlation with racism, violence, sexual immorality and harassment and objectification of women. In order to avoid unusual behaviors the time spent on video game playing should be balanced against time spent in real life activities.
In conclusion, it is evident from the above mentioned points that video ga...