Gory games cut crime, says report

The success of games such as GTA IV has coincided with a drop in violent crime, says a report in International Journal of Liability and Scientific Enquiry.

Patrick Kierkegaard of the University of Essex claims that violent games can actually reduce aggression, and that evidence linking games to violence is ‘flimsy’, reports Metro newspaper.

"Violent crime, particularly among the young, has decreased dramatically since the early 1990s, while video games have steadily increased in popularity and use,” said Kierkegaard.

For example, in 2005, there were 1,360,088 violent crimes reported in the USA compared with 1,423,677 the year before. With millions of sales of violent games, the world should be seeing an epidemic of violence, instead violence has declined."