Gun violence in movies vs. violent crime rates

[Saunders]

One likely factor: Lead

 

Starting in the 1960s, America saw a huge increase in levels of violent crime that peaked in the early 1990s, then steadily declined, and continues to decline today. All kinds of theories have been promulgated to explain this peak and decline in crime, and plenty of politicians in the 1990s took credit for it. But in what I personally consider to be a tour de force of journalism, Kevin Drum of Mother Jones has summarized all of the available research. All of it points to one simple idea: violent crime rose as a result of lead poisoning because of leaded gasoline. It declined because of lead abatement policies.

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2013/01/03/how-lead-caused-americas-violent-crime-epidemic/#29fe350e63b2

 

 

As for games and violence:

 

Violent video games are the latest moral panic. They are blamed when tragedies happen, they are blamed for crime, and they are blamed for schoolyard dust-ups. But when a parent or news anchor links video games to violence, do they have a leg to stand on? A new study published this week in the Journal of Communication tries to approach the question objectively, and has found no positive link between violence in society and violent video games. In fact, it found the opposite. That’s where things get complicated.

 

http://nerdist.com/the-most-objective-study-yet-finds-no-link-between-video-games-and-violence/

 

 

I did a study/paper on it on college. As a gamer, I found it fascinating. Many of the same arguments used against games were the same used against Rock & Roll decades prior. The tl;dr is that there is no verified causal link between violent games and violent behavior.

[Red Dead Redemption]

The lead theory is interesting