In an entertainingly written open letter to Hillary Clinton, Steven Johnson writes that, in the last decade, the decade of videogames in every home, violent crime has dropped more than in any other period of time. Car-jacking has been getting less and less common since the introduction of Grand Theft Auto, in which car-jacking is of course a major passtime. And US teenagers’ mathematical and verbal skills, as shown on test scores, have improved. Good stats to drop next time someone assumes videogames are destroying youth. Unfortunately,
2 thoughts on “carjacking moving from streets to Grand Theft Auto”
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Linn
I absolutely adore the discussions emerging from this big yooohaa named ‘Hot Coffee’! And it’s so nice to see people like Steven Johnson (although not suprised) contributing. I almost found tears in my eyes reading Game Evolution’s Duke Ferris’ article on the subject ( http://gr.bolt.com/articles/violence/violence.htm)
It is important to discuss this…and extremely important to study it here in Norway as well. But I honestly can’t get over the irony that it’s parents who are letting their 11 year olds play this game that are protesting the loudest. Seems banal to even have age limitations then!!! LOL!
Jill
Isn’t it hilarious? I’m particularly tickled by the grandmother suing the game company – she bought the game for her FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD grandson, despite its 17 and over age limit and all the huge warnings about the violence in it and she’s complaining that she didn’t realise she was giving him sex! Hihi 🙂