Despite the global recession which hit the USA particularly badly last year, crime was down from 2008. In fact, violent crimes in the US were down by 5.5 percent, and property crimes down by 4.9 percent.
Obviously loads of possible reasons are being considered, but one in particular stands out.
Harvard economist Lawrence Katz speculates that crime rates may be down because of video games. “lolwut” I hear you snigger?
Well, he is careful not to put it forward as a fact, and even admits that it is not verifiable. According to The Economist, “Larry Katz, a Harvard economist, suspects that video games and websites may have kept the young and idle busy during this recession, thus explaining the surprising lack of an uptick in crime.”
VGChartz notes that a similar theory was put forward by The Times back in 2008, but it was concerning film.
“Instead of fuelling up at bars and then roaming around looking for trouble, potential criminals pass the prime hours for mayhem eating popcorn and watching celluloid villains slay in their stead… You’re taking a lot of violent people off the streets and putting them inside movie theatres,” said The Times.
It’s an interesting theory, although to really get anywhere with it you would have to also show a marked increase in the amount of time people spent playing games in 2009 compared to 2008. While it is proposed that this was the case due to the recession, it has not been reliably verified. If people spent roughly the same amount of time playing games in 2009 as in 2008, then I don’t see how gaming could be attributed to any change in crime rates in 2009.
If this is the case however, then South African’s at large should be championing for the growth of local gaming.
Do you think gaming is related to crime rates? Share your thoughts in the forums.
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