We've perhaps posted every study related news article discussing how violent videogames do not breed violent people, the only thing different this time around is that the person responsible for the news is a woman named Karen Sternheimer and the fact that after reading it, it seems as if she nailed the topic perfectly. Besides, anytime we can stress the truth why not, eh?

From the article:

Writing in the latest edition of Contexts, a quarterly journal published by the American Sociological Association, USC’s Karen Sternheimer (left) says we need to look beyond video games for the roots of youth violence:

Politicians and other moral crusaders frequently create “folk devils,” individuals or groups defined as evil and immoral. Folk devils allow us to channel our blame and fear… Video games… have become contemporary folk devils because they seem to pose a threat to children.

Such games have come to represent a variety of social anxieties: about youth violence, new computer technology, and the apparent decline in the ability of adults to control what young people do and know. Panics about youth and popular culture have emerged with the appearance of many new technologies… cars, radio, movies, rock music, and even comic books…

Beyond political posturing, Sternheimer argues that the media contributes to the fear of video games in modern society, while the actual root causes of violence are largely ignored:

The biggest problem with media-effects research is that it attempts to decontextualize violence. Poverty, neighborhood instability, unemployment, and even family violence fall by the wayside… Ironically, even mental illness tends to be overlooked in this psychologically oriented research.

Read the full article over at gamepolitics.com