Banning Grand Theft Auto won’t solve Chicago’s car-jacking problem

I was an avid gamer from a young age. I spent many a happy hour locked away in my room playing video games into the early hours. The enjoyment I got from immersing myself in an alternate 8-bit reality was exhilarating.

It’s something I feel Marcus Evans Jr does not understand.

The Illinois State representative has proposed a bill which seeks to amend a 2012 law banning the sale of games that depict “motor vehicle theft with a driver or passenger present.”

The clue’s in the name, but one particular franchise Evans has in his sights is Grand Theft Auto.

The video game series has been suggested as a possible reason for the rise in the number of carjackings in the state. According to the Chicago Police Department, there were 218 in January 2021, compared with 77 in the same month last year, an increase of 183 per cent.

When it comes to blaming video games, I feel we’ve been here before.

After the 2019 El Paso mass shooting in Texas, the gunman is alleged to have left an online message where he namechecks the game Call of Duty. Donald Trump – no doubt facing pressure from the NRA to deflect from any mention of gun control – seized on this by blaming video games. Saying that “gruesome and grisly video games” contributed to the “glorification of violence.”

So what evidence is there that video games lead to real world violence?

Absolutely none according to Patrick Markey of Villanova University. After a number of studies, the psychology professor concluded that “The research is not there to suggest that there is a link between violent video games and these horrific acts of violence.” He goes on to state that there is convincing evidence that suggests these video games reduce violence, acting as a form of emotional release. Think of it like watching an awful romantic Hollywood movie. You might shed a tear, but you don’t become suicidal or clinically depressed (unless it stars Hugh Grant).

Any study that purports to find a link between video games and violence should be treated with a degree of scepticism. For starters, how exactly do you quantify violence? Some people think shouting is violent. The social justice left thinks words are violence. You can’t study people playing violent video games, then hand them a loaded gun to see if they will shoot someone.

Studies should also be sensitive to the distinction between aggression and violence. After playing a violent video game, a user may throw a controller in a fit of rage. “Plenty of gamers…get upset when they lose or feel the game was ‘cheating,’ but it doesn’t lead to violent outputs,” according to Benjamin Burroughs, professor of media at the University of Las Vegas.

The causal link between the spike in car-jackings and Grand Theft Auto is all the more tenuous when you consider the first installment of the franchise was released in 1997. Are we seriously to believe that all of a sudden, this increase can be attributed to a game now almost a quarter century old?

When it comes to Grand Theft Auto, while I’ve mowed down many a hippie in a stolen Ferrari, I have never had the urge to go out and do so in the real world. Partly, it must be said, because I don’t drive.

Joking aside, millions of people around the world play video games on a daily basis. A tiny minority commit violent crimes.

‘Apophenia’ is a term first used by the psychiatrist Klaus Conrad to describe the unique human tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things. It’s tempting to explain social decay by using a scapegoat. Video games appear to be the latest, laziest target.

If any explanation is required here, plenty of plausible ones exist that don’t rely on sensationalism or moral panics.

Carjacking in Chicago is an offence predominantly carried out by youths. But legal loopholes and laws exempt the young from any serious repercussions. For example, if a youth is caught with a gun in school, they are detained for a number of weeks whilst a home life assessment is undertaken. When it comes to carjacking, the perpetrators are not detained, but sent back to their parents within 24 hours. I guess they could be free to play more video games, but I would hazard a guess that a combination of poverty and a strong moral presence in the household plays a role. With gangs running rampant throughout the city, these youths gravitate towards gangs which offer some sense of pseudo-paternal comfort. Add in a year of BLM protests and a deep hostility towards police and you may have a plausible answer.

Speaking about the proposed ban, Evans Jr said, “The bill would prohibit the sale of some of these games that promote the activities that we’re suffering from in our communities.”

There are a lot of “activities” hurting communities in Illinois that merit serious and immediate attention. Chicago is one of the most violent cities in America. The city ended 2020 with 769 homicides. I think there are far more pressing concerns than banning a computer game.