Video Games, Crime and Violence

Abstract:     
Psychological studies of the effects of playing video games have found emotional responses and physical reactions associated with reinforced violent and antisocial attitudes. These markers may be associated with increases in one's preferences for antisocial behaviors or may indicate that one's desire for actual antisocial behaviors are partially sated. I investigate whether video game play is associated with observed antisocial behavior outcomes. The incidences of various reported crimes are related to a proxy for increased gaming, the number of game stores, from a panel of US counties from 1994 to 2004. With fixed county and year effects, I find that more game stores are associated with significant declines form most types of crimes. Analogous proxies for other youth related leisure activities - sports and movie viewing - do not have a similar effect. I find that mortality rates, especially mortality rates stemming from injuries, also are negatively related to the number of game stores. These results are robust to various alternative specifications.

Keywords: Video Games, Violence, Crime

JEL Classifications: L86, D18, I18

Working Paper Series