Top Cop Slammed for Anti-Videogames Statement
Australian police commissioner Andrew Scipione had "no idea what he was talking about"
New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione has made rather a prat of himself with statements to Sydney tabloid newspaper The Telegraph linking violent behaviour and videogames. One academic has stated that the top cop "has no idea what he is talking about.
The tabloid Telegraph (owned my Mr Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp and published by News Limited) stated in its story that:
"KNIFE crime is soaring among youngsters because brutal video games that reward players for murder, rape and theft have made violence seem acceptable, the state's top cop said yesterday."
Based on this, the police commissioner then wades in, saying, "How can it not affect you if you're a young adolescent growing up in an era where to be violent is almost praiseworthy, where you engage in virtual crime on a daily basis and many of these young people (do) for hours and hours on end. You get rewarded for killing people, raping women, stealing money from prostitutes, driving cars crashing and killing people."
NewsCorp then does what Mr Murdoch pays it to do and finds someone to be quoted to another story contradicting its first story. This time it's Dr Christopher Ferguson, associate professor of psychology and communication at the University of Texas.
Dr Ferguson says, "In fact, in most countries youth violence has reached 40 year lows during the video game epoch..." He also points out that the rise in the rate of stabbings quoted in first story is, "based on no good research data as an emotional reaction to a 'recent spate' of knifings that could simply be due to a random fluctuation in crime rates".
Also hauled before the court of public opinion is Professor of Communication and Media at Bond University, Dr Jeffrey Brand, who states that, "Mr Scipione had ignored several major studies that found no conclusive proof that violent video games made people violent."
He also wonderfully points out that, ""Does a criminal play computer games? Very likely. Does a non criminal play computer games? Very likely."
The tabloid Telegraph (owned my Mr Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp and published by News Limited) stated in its story that:
"KNIFE crime is soaring among youngsters because brutal video games that reward players for murder, rape and theft have made violence seem acceptable, the state's top cop said yesterday."
Based on this, the police commissioner then wades in, saying, "How can it not affect you if you're a young adolescent growing up in an era where to be violent is almost praiseworthy, where you engage in virtual crime on a daily basis and many of these young people (do) for hours and hours on end. You get rewarded for killing people, raping women, stealing money from prostitutes, driving cars crashing and killing people."
NewsCorp then does what Mr Murdoch pays it to do and finds someone to be quoted to another story contradicting its first story. This time it's Dr Christopher Ferguson, associate professor of psychology and communication at the University of Texas.
Dr Ferguson says, "In fact, in most countries youth violence has reached 40 year lows during the video game epoch..." He also points out that the rise in the rate of stabbings quoted in first story is, "based on no good research data as an emotional reaction to a 'recent spate' of knifings that could simply be due to a random fluctuation in crime rates".
Also hauled before the court of public opinion is Professor of Communication and Media at Bond University, Dr Jeffrey Brand, who states that, "Mr Scipione had ignored several major studies that found no conclusive proof that violent video games made people violent."
He also wonderfully points out that, ""Does a criminal play computer games? Very likely. Does a non criminal play computer games? Very likely."