High School Shooting History
Looking at the history of shootings in the primary and elementary schools in the United States, one is confronted with some brutal realities. Some of the examples include West Paducah (Kentucky) in December 1997, Jonesboro (Arkansas) in March 1998, Springfield (Oregon) in May 1998, and Littleton (Colorado) in April 1999. All these incidents have one thing in common. School aged children who were also avid video game players, were at the center of those incidents. More recent violent crime at school which we can link video games, includes a shooting at Santee (California) in March 2001, a violent crime at Oakland (California) in January 2003, five homicides in Long Prairie and Minneapolis (Minnesota) in May 2003, beating at Medina (Ohio) in November 2002. These are some noticeable violent events recorded in United States’ history, but the question is that United State is not the only country in which school going children are getting involved in such crimes. School shootings are not new phenomenon and incidents of shooting were also noted in Germany and Japan.
Before the aforementioned violence, many believed that the shooting incidents are limited to urban high schools (Sheley, McGee, & Wright, 1992). A nationwide survey done by Kachur in 1996 says that these incidents occur 9 times more in urban schools than rural schools (Kachur, et al., 1996). What is making all these children commit such …show more content…
criminal activities? It was proved that the culprit behind all these crimes is video games. We can say that avid video game players were committing all those aforementioned crimes.
Video games are mainly designed for the entertainment purpose, which we can play either on television using video game devices or on computers. Nowadays they are available everywhere in different varieties, sizes and shapes. Some of those video games show violent behaviors like fighting, shooting with guns, killing victims for example Manhunt, Resident Evil, Dead Rising, God of War, and Mad world. On the other hand, there are some games which are not only non-violent games and do not have any violence in them but are purely for entertainment and have education side of it too; for example Big Brain Academy, Flower, and Echo Chrome. Children find them fascinating because most of the video game requires active participation of the player. Among American children video game have become more popular, this is one of the favorite activity they like and want to do. In 1999, sales of video games were between & 7-7.5 billion but in 2000 it reached up to $20 billion. There are a number of studies done to find out the association between playing violent video games and the change in the behavior of a child. The American psychological association (APA), the American academy of pediatrics (AAP), the American academy of child and adolescent psychiatry (AACAP) and the American medical association (AMA) have already stated that there is causal connection present between the media violence and violence behavior.
25 years ago children used to play outside but these days, they rather play games at home using those hand held video games or computer based or console based video games, than going out in the park and grounds to play and make new friends.
On the other hand, video games these days are becoming more and more violent which is not only deteriorating physical health of children but also mental health. In other words, children are becoming more and more sedentary, obese, not physically healthy and mentally ill too. They are being involved more and more in violent
behavior.
Very little research work has been done on the violent video games and its effect on children than on the violence shown in television and movies. Very obvious reason for this little work is that this is a comparatively new approach of entertainment and enough funds has not been provided by the government to work in this area. There are some published works on this topic by very few researchers but there number is very limited. For example, Calvert stated that according to the arousal theory; playing violent video games lead to the physiological arousal that is increase in heart rate, increase in brain activity, increase in blood pressure and also increase in the conductance of the skin. It directly depends on the level of violence exposed and after sometime when tolerance to that level of violence is developed; further exposure to higher level of violence generates higher level of aggression (Calvert, 1999). Research done by John L. Sherry from Purdue University suggests that the quantity and the duration of the exposure to violence in a particular amount of time differs from individual to individual skills and level and an individual having high skills have more chances of getting involved in more violence and more repeatedly than the players who are just learners (Sherry, 2001). Earlier in this century, a model called general aggression model was developed by few psychologists to determine the relation between exposure to the violent video games and the aggressive behavior. This model describes the personal and situational input variables are present which act upon internal states, which lead to aggression (Anderson & Bushman, 2001). General aggressive model describes short-term effects of the violent video game. With respect to the short-term effects, General Aggression Model suggests that both person and situation can influence the internal state of a person. Short-term model states that exposing to violent video games for short span of time lead to increase aggression for small period of time whereas long term exposure to violent video game this model implies that a person may end up by developing aggression related knowledge structure, which includes hostility, aggressiveness, tend to use violence and thinking like violence is a good solution (Bushman & Anderson, 2002).
In general we say, we do what we see. These days, children are spending more and more time on video games than meeting their friends and playing with them outside. The long-term effects of this violence involve learning how to perceive, interpret, judge and respond to any events. Children are unable to make decisions physically or mentally and think that violence is the right way to solve their problem. Our knowledge structure of gathering, interpreting, evaluating, judging and acting depends on what we do in our everyday life. If we play violent video games, we can only think of violence and that is what we do. In one word we can say that playing violent video games affect the children physically and mentally and make them commit serious crimes.
Before the aforementioned violence, many believed that the shooting incidents are limited to urban high schools (Sheley, McGee, & Wright, 1992). A nationwide survey done by Kachur in 1996 says that these incidents occur 9 times more in urban schools than rural schools (Kachur, et al., 1996). What is making all these children commit such …show more content…
criminal activities? It was proved that the culprit behind all these crimes is video games. We can say that avid video game players were committing all those aforementioned crimes.
Video games are mainly designed for the entertainment purpose, which we can play either on television using video game devices or on computers. Nowadays they are available everywhere in different varieties, sizes and shapes. Some of those video games show violent behaviors like fighting, shooting with guns, killing victims for example Manhunt, Resident Evil, Dead Rising, God of War, and Mad world. On the other hand, there are some games which are not only non-violent games and do not have any violence in them but are purely for entertainment and have education side of it too; for example Big Brain Academy, Flower, and Echo Chrome. Children find them fascinating because most of the video game requires active participation of the player. Among American children video game have become more popular, this is one of the favorite activity they like and want to do. In 1999, sales of video games were between & 7-7.5 billion but in 2000 it reached up to $20 billion. There are a number of studies done to find out the association between playing violent video games and the change in the behavior of a child. The American psychological association (APA), the American academy of pediatrics (AAP), the American academy of child and adolescent psychiatry (AACAP) and the American medical association (AMA) have already stated that there is causal connection present between the media violence and violence behavior.
25 years ago children used to play outside but these days, they rather play games at home using those hand held video games or computer based or console based video games, than going out in the park and grounds to play and make new friends.
On the other hand, video games these days are becoming more and more violent which is not only deteriorating physical health of children but also mental health. In other words, children are becoming more and more sedentary, obese, not physically healthy and mentally ill too. They are being involved more and more in violent
behavior.
Very little research work has been done on the violent video games and its effect on children than on the violence shown in television and movies. Very obvious reason for this little work is that this is a comparatively new approach of entertainment and enough funds has not been provided by the government to work in this area. There are some published works on this topic by very few researchers but there number is very limited. For example, Calvert stated that according to the arousal theory; playing violent video games lead to the physiological arousal that is increase in heart rate, increase in brain activity, increase in blood pressure and also increase in the conductance of the skin. It directly depends on the level of violence exposed and after sometime when tolerance to that level of violence is developed; further exposure to higher level of violence generates higher level of aggression (Calvert, 1999). Research done by John L. Sherry from Purdue University suggests that the quantity and the duration of the exposure to violence in a particular amount of time differs from individual to individual skills and level and an individual having high skills have more chances of getting involved in more violence and more repeatedly than the players who are just learners (Sherry, 2001). Earlier in this century, a model called general aggression model was developed by few psychologists to determine the relation between exposure to the violent video games and the aggressive behavior. This model describes the personal and situational input variables are present which act upon internal states, which lead to aggression (Anderson & Bushman, 2001). General aggressive model describes short-term effects of the violent video game. With respect to the short-term effects, General Aggression Model suggests that both person and situation can influence the internal state of a person. Short-term model states that exposing to violent video games for short span of time lead to increase aggression for small period of time whereas long term exposure to violent video game this model implies that a person may end up by developing aggression related knowledge structure, which includes hostility, aggressiveness, tend to use violence and thinking like violence is a good solution (Bushman & Anderson, 2002).
In general we say, we do what we see. These days, children are spending more and more time on video games than meeting their friends and playing with them outside. The long-term effects of this violence involve learning how to perceive, interpret, judge and respond to any events. Children are unable to make decisions physically or mentally and think that violence is the right way to solve their problem. Our knowledge structure of gathering, interpreting, evaluating, judging and acting depends on what we do in our everyday life. If we play violent video games, we can only think of violence and that is what we do. In one word we can say that playing violent video games affect the children physically and mentally and make them commit serious crimes.