Can A Video Game Lead To Murder?

[Grove-Street-OG's]

(CBS) Imagine if the entertainment industry created a video game in which you could decapitate police officers, kill them with a sniper rifle, massacre them with a chainsaw, and set them on fire.

 

Think anyone would buy such a violent game?

 

They would, and they have. The game Grand Theft Auto has sold more than 35 million copies, with worldwide sales approaching $2 billion.

 

Last winter, a multi-million dollar lawsuit was filed in Alabama against the makers and marketers of Grand Theft Auto, claiming that months of playing the game led a teenager to go on a rampage and kill three men, two of them police officers.

 

Can a video game train someone to kill? Correspondent Ed Bradley reports on this story that first aired on March 6, 2005.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Grand Theft Auto is a world governed by the laws of depravity. See a car you like? Steal it. Someone you don't like? Stomp her. A cop in your way? Blow him away.

 

There are police at every turn, and endless opportunities to take them down. It is 360 degrees of murder and mayhem: slickly produced, technologically brilliant, and exceedingly violent.

 

And now, the game is at the center of a civil lawsuit involving the murders of three men in the small town of Fayette, Ala. They were gunned down by 18-year-old Devin Moore, who had played Grand Theft Auto day and night for months.

 

Attorney Jack Thompson, a long-time crusader against video-game violence, is bringing the suit. "What we're saying is that Devin Moore was, in effect, trained to do what he did. He was given a murder simulator," says Thompson.

 

"He bought it as a minor. He played it hundreds of hours, which is primarily a cop-killing game. It's our theory, which we think we can prove to a jury in Alabama, that, but for the video-game training, he would not have done what he did."

 

Moore’s victims were Ace Mealer, a 911 dispatcher; James Crump, a police officer; and Arnold Strickland, another officer who was on patrol in the early morning hours of June 7, 2003, when he brought in Moore on suspicion of stealing a car.

 

Moore had no criminal history, and was cooperative as Strickland booked him inside the Fayette police station. Then suddenly, inexplicably, Moore snapped.

 

According to Moore's own statement, he lunged at Officer Arnold Strickland, grabbing his .40-caliber Glock automatic and shot Strickland twice, once in the head. Officer James Crump heard the shots and came running. Moore met him in the hallway, and fired three shots into Crump, one of them in the head.

 

Moore kept walking down the hallway towards the door of the emergency dispatcher. There, he turned and fired five shots into Ace Mealer. Again, one of those shots was in the head. Along the way, Moore had grabbed a set of car keys. He went out the door to the parking lot, jumped into a police cruiser, and took off. It all took less than a minute, and three men were dead.

 

"The video game industry gave him a cranial menu that popped up in the blink of an eye, in that police station," says Thompson. "And that menu offered him the split-second decision to kill the officers, shoot them in the head, flee in a police car, just as the game itself trained them to do."

 

After his capture, Moore is reported to have told police, "Life is like a video game. Everybody’s got to die sometime." Moore is awaiting trial in criminal court. A suit filed by the families of two of his victims claims that Moore acted out a scenario found in Grand Theft Auto: The player is a street thug trying to take over the city. In one scenario, the player can enter a police precinct, steal a uniform, free a convict from jail, escape by shooting police, and flee in a squad car.

 

"I've now got the entire police force after me. So you have to eliminate all resistance," says Nicholas Hamner, a law student at the University of Alabama, who demonstrated Grand Theft Auto for 60 Minutes. Like millions of gamers, the overwhelming majority, he says he plays it simply for fun.

 

David Walsh, a child psychologist who’s co-authored a study connecting violent video games to physical aggression, says the link can be explained in part by pioneering brain research recently done at the National Institutes of Health -- which shows that the teenage brain is not fully developed.

 

Does repeated exposure to violent video games have more of an impact on a teenager than it does on an adult?

 

"It does. And that's largely because the teenage brain is different from the adult brain. The impulse control center of the brain, the part of the brain that enables us to think ahead, consider consequences, manage urges -- that's the part of the brain right behind our forehead called the prefrontal cortex," says Walsh. "That's under construction during the teenage years. In fact, the wiring of that is not completed until the early 20s."

 

Walsh says this diminished impulse control becomes heightened in a person who has additional risk factors for criminal behavior. Moore had a profoundly troubled upbringing, bouncing back and forth between a broken home and a handful of foster families.

 

"And so when a young man with a developing brain, already angry, spends hours and hours and hours rehearsing violent acts, and then he's put in this situation of emotional stress, there's a likelihood that he will literally go to that familiar pattern that's been wired repeatedly, perhaps thousands and thousands of times," says Walsh.

 

"You've got probably millions of kids out there playing violent games like Grand Theft Auto and other violent games, who never hurt a fly," says Bradley. "So what does that do to your theory?"

 

"You know, not every kid that plays a violent video game is gonna turn to violence. And that's because they don't have all of those other risk factors going on," says Walsh. "It's a combination of risk factors, which come together in a tragic outcome."

 

 

 

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(CBS) Arnold Strickland had been a police officer for 25 years when he was murdered. His brother, Steve, a Methodist minister, wants the video game industry to pay.

 

"Why does it have to come to a point to where somebody's life has to be taken before they realize that these games have repercussions to them? Why does it have to be to where my brother's not here anymore?" says Steve Strickland. "There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about him."

 

Strickland, along with Mealer's parents, are suing Moore, as well as Wal-Mart and GameStop, which sold Moore two versions of Grand Theft Auto. Both companies sent 60 Minutes letters insisting they bear no responsibility for Moore’s actions, and that the game is played by millions of law-abiding citizens.

 

Take-Two Interactive, the creator of Grand Theft Auto, and Sony, which makes the device that runs the game, are also being sued. Both declined to talk to 60 Minutes on camera. Instead, they referred it to Doug Lowenstein, who represents the video game industry.

 

Lowenstein is not named in the lawsuit, and says he can’t comment on it directly. "It's not my job to defend individual titles," says Lowenstein. "My job is to defend the right of people in this industry to create the products that they want to create. That's free expression."

 

"A police officer we spoke to said, 'Our job is dangerous enough as it is without having our kids growing up playing those games and having the preconceived notions of "let's kill an officer." It's almost like putting a target on us.' Can you see his point?" asks Bradley.

 

"Look, I have great respect for the law enforcement officers of this country.... I don't think video games inspire people to commit crimes," says Lowenstein. "If people have a criminal mind, it's not because they're getting their ideas from the video games. There's something much more deeply wrong with the individual. And it's not the game that's the problem."

 

But shouldn't Moore, alone, face the consequences of his decision to kill three men?

 

"There's plenty of blame to go around. The fact is we think Devin Moore is responsible for what he did," says Thompson. "But we think that the adults who created these games and, in effect, programmed Devon Moore and assisted him to kill are responsible, at least civilly."

 

Thompson says video game companies had reason to foresee that some of their products would trigger violence, and bolsters his case with claims that the murders in Fayette were not the first thought to be inspired by Grand Theft Auto.

 

In Oakland, Calif., detectives said the game provoked a street gang accused of robbing and killing six people. In Newport, Tenn., two teenagers told police the game was an influence when they shot at passing cars with a .22 caliber rifle, killing one person. But to date, not a single court case has acknowledged a link between virtual violence and the real thing.

 

Paul Smith is a First Amendment lawyer who has represented video game companies. "What you have in almost every generation is the new medium that comes along. And it's subject of almost a hysterical attack," says Smith. "If you went back to the 1950s, it's hard to believe now, but comic books were blamed for juvenile delinquency. And I think what you really have here is very much the same phenomenon playing itself out again with a new medium."

 

Why does he think the courts have ruled against these kinds of lawsuits?

 

"If you start saying that we're going to sue people because one individual out there read their book or played their game and decided to become a criminal, there is no stopping point," says Smith. "It's a huge new swath of censorship that will be imposed on the media."

 

Despite its violence, or because of it, the fact is that millions of people like playing Grand Theft Auto. Steve Strickland can’t understand why.

 

"The question I have to ask the manufacturers of them is, 'Why do you make games that target people that are to protect us, police officers, people that we look up to -- people that I respect -- with high admiration?' " says Strickland.

 

" 'Why do you want to market a game that gives people the thoughts, even the thoughts of thinking it's okay to shoot police officers? Why do you wanna do that?' "

 

Both Wal-Mart and GameStop, where Moore purchased Grand Theft Auto, say they voluntarily card teenagers in an effort to keep violent games from underage kids. But several states are considering laws that would ban the sale of violent games to those under 17.

Edited June 20, 2005 by Grove-Street-OG's

[JDHJJ]

A wee bit old.

[NeXiLe]

stupid. and there's tons of video games where you can kill police or random people so why are they picking on gta:( but yeah, it's very stupid, who the 1234 would be impressionable enough to do something that someone did in a game, that's as stupid as some little kid playing spiderman and trying to jump off a building, file a lawsuit against the people who make spiderman, not R*;o

[JDHJJ]

stupid. and there's tons of video games where you can kill police or random people so why are they picking on gta:( but yeah, it's very stupid, who the 1234 would be impressionable enough to do something that someone did in a game, that's as stupid as some little kid playing spiderman and trying to jump off a building, file a lawsuit against the people who make spiderman, not R*;o

I couldn't have said it better. Spiderman is more violent!! lol jk..

 

Yah I dunno why there pickin on GTA

[minclless]

Did GTASA train him to handle a gun that well? He was obviously a well trained gun user for shooting the officers in the head.

Why dont they claim the gun range for making him able to use a gun. Why dont they claim the guy at the gunshop for selling the gun.

The thing is, there are always other things involving the crime, (dont know if GTA SA made him do it) but in the end, the one killing is not the guy at the gunshop, it's not the gunrange, it's not Rockstar games, it's the guy himself who killed. Frame him for it.

[NeXiLe]

i imagine it's not too difficult to shoot someone in the head.. anyone little kid who's shot a paintball/bebe gun could easily shoot someone in the head and it said it was all over in about a minute i think.. so i'm sure the police officers wern't running and hiding, just standing to get shot in the head;)

[GTAAustralia]

was the cops safety on.

 

If so you don't learn to take the safety off from GTA.

 

You might in a movie.

[Tril]

BOO!!!

Those who think video games cause people to kill are morons...

They are just looking for a excuse to try to get out of trouble...

And people can't blame Rockstar or any other game company for

children murdering or stealing from others because the game is

rated M for mature! So if the parents are too stupid to understand

that they're kid is a moron than thats they're problem...

 

Don't Blame Rockstar, Blame Yourself or God... ~Kutmasta_A

[DAVEY007]

 

No, its not that easy. I am an avid hunter, and shooter, and I am a pretty good shot. He must have had some kind of traing beacuse, its hard to shoot a gun, while moving and hit a small target like someones head.~DAVEY007

 

[Norinator_42]

to my knowledge and memory, i'm recalling as many missions as possible from GTA3, VC, and those i've done in SA so far, and i can't think of a single one where it is actually required to kill a cop to pass a mission, but feel free to correct me if i'm wrong. I've played all 3 for many years and have never felt any kind of violent tensions...the games/game makers aren't to blame, like other people said, the games don't teach you how to handle the weapons...i've never actually fired a real gun but i think i can safely assume it's alot different that clicking the mouse or pressing a button.

[HellZ]

 

to my knowledge and memory, i'm recalling as many missions as possible from GTA3, VC, and those i've done in SA so far, and i can't think of a single one where it is actually required to kill a cop to pass a mission, but feel free to correct me if i'm wrong. I've played all 3 for many years and have never felt any kind of violent tensions...the games/game makers aren't to blame, like other people said, the games don't teach you how to handle the weapons...i've never actually fired a real gun but i think i can safely assume it's alot different that clicking the mouse or pressing a button.

^^^^

 

I play GTA so much, it amazes my friends, because I have such a mellow attitude, they would expect someone who plays GTA as much as me to be easily pissed off, and whatnot. I have no idea how to fire a gun, and I've played GTA since the first GrandTheftAuto, and since GTA3, i've played a game in the series an average of about three days per week(including weeks I haven't played it, and weeks i've played every day ), I have no desire to go kill cops, or anything like that, I think these kids that gun down people "because of GTA" had much more wrong with them before they ever popped the disc into their PS2.

[tommygun1]

Let me see how to put this. The game is violent, yes. The game does have cops that are as any other ped in the game... killable. One big thing they missed, (and this has been since the begining of 3d gta) The Game Is Not ABOUT Cop Killing!!!!! That may seem like a weak arguement against what they're saying, but it IS what they based their arguement on. The blame, (imo as always) lies with the mental stability of a troubled individual. He said life is like a video game. That is an obvious mental delusion that existed before he played the game. I attribute most of the blame to whomever was supervising this kid, yes he had a rough upbringing and moved from family to family. A rough life early on can cause mental problems in some. THEY established this in the article. So if they want to blame somebody for his problems maybe there are others more deserving like oh... say... his parents or THE PEOPLE WHO WERE WATCHING HIM at the time before he was arrested for the unnamed crime he was originally arrested for in the article.

 

With this said, none of my anger is directed at the families of the officers or the men killed. Losing someone in such a way is something thats near impossible to understand. Then the question WHY comes up. I'm mad at the lawyers who (more than likely) used them to jumpstart their career. If you're brother or son or father was shot by a mentally incompetent psycho and some lawyers told you that GTA was to blame for his actions, wouldn't you sue the companies. I'm not saying they're right, but I don't want to hear anybody attacking the families, they were duped into this at their lowest point by some slimeball lawyers.

 

If this has confused anybody about my standing...

 

The boy is to blame, and I hope he burns in hell for it.

 

There I feel better... sorta

[tommy vercetti guy]

This is strange, i am 12 years old, playing GTA since 11 years old, and i never had the urge to blast cops in the face, then joyride in thier cop car

[tommygun1]

I was 3 when I started playing Wolfenstein 3D. I'm not perfect, but most of the voices in my head are downright nice fellas

[BlOoDStReAm101]

 

This is strange, i am 12 years old, playing GTA since 11 years old, and i never had the urge to blast cops in the face, then joyride in thier cop car

 

me 2.... they shouldnt blame rockstar or sonyor any company... like wut tril said they should blame there parents for buying it to there kids.....

[tommygun1]

Really. Think about it, if you kill somebody and then say it was the game that made you do it. Wouldn't that kinda be like pleading insanity. People do that all the time to avoid jail time.

[BlOoDStReAm101]

 

Really. Think about it, if you kill somebody and then say it was the game that made you do it. Wouldn't that kinda be like pleading insanity. People do that all the time to avoid jail time

 

 

yea it would have to be a person who made you do this,like your parents letting you buy it or the guy who sold u the gun

[Tril]

@tommy vercetti guy&BlOoDStReAm101:

HELL YEA!!!

THe I've also been playing since I waz 11! But I'm 13 now...

 

 

I have a quote the Rockstar says themselves in GTA3 that express

the way I feel about people that want to take GTA off the market...

"It's about grabbing the town by the balls and saying listen son...

Either put up or shut up!" ~Caller from Chatterbox FM on GTA3

And also a quote from www.homestarrunner.com expresses the

way I feel about those who blame Rockstar for their own stupidity...

"Ahem...SCREW ALL YA'LL!" ~StrongBad

 

ROCKSTAR LIVES,DICKHEADS!

[thedude777]

"He bought it as a minor.

No, his parents had to have bought it if he was a minor...blame the parents...I have been playing GTA since the original. I have never once wanted to murder

 

 

which is primarily a cop-killing game.

It is? In GTA:SA I only killed cops that I had to for missions, which isn't that many...right?

[Tril]

I don't remember any missions in SA that you have to kill cops...

They killed themselves...

 

The only mission in any GTA that I remember you had to kill cops

was in GTAVC...

"We're gonna lure them in with the finger,

and then jump'em in the lock-up." ~Lance - "Cop Land"

[tommygun1]

In sa you kill the dirty cops that KILL OTHER COPS. For crying out loud the game has you killing criminals. The only cop you really kill is Tenpenny's sidekick whatshisface. Tenpenny kills himself in the wreck.

[Martini Racing]

I think these people need to find something else to blame. When San An came out, I bought it. I took a week off of work and played it the whole time. I did everthing bad in the game, and I've never, ever had any thought of really killing somone. I didn't even kill the guy who broke into my house and pulled a gun on me. In order to be influenced that much by a game, you would have to literally play it as soon as you were born, so as not to know anything else. Real people know more than what they see in video games, and to blame a game for your actions is as dumb as saying someone else did it, even though they have proof it was you. These lawyers can F*CK OFF if they honestly find this as their only thing to do. And why S.A.? Mercenaries had you hijacking Military Vehicles and killing people, how come no one blames it?

Now I'm going to be mad for the rest of the day.

[revjay]

 

there's tons of video games where you can kill police or random people so why are they picking on gta

 

The why is easy.. two billion dollars in profits from the sales of the game, much the same reason they're going after sony and wal-mart. It isnt about whats right or wrong but about who they're trying to get to pay the bills.

 

If it was a moral issue they'd get laughed out of criminal court instead of getting an out of court settlement through the civil suit.

[Vercetti Gangsta]

I couldn't have said it better. Spiderman is more violent!! lol jk..

LOL even Kirby is more Violent!

Although, they blame GTA because they are Idiots! There are so many other games that are violent but they just keep ignoring them.

[srg]

It's a sensitive issue alright, rather difficult to determine to whom the blame must be put on.

 

There seems to be no solid proofs until now that some criminal acts committed were influenced by "violent" video games, except on a theoretical basis only. On the other hand, those theories might prove factual also if we come to think of the strong influence some materials, like GTA perhaps might have on some people under certain circumstances.

 

Now to say that R* is to blame outrightly for what happened to those three men IMO is unfair. But those people who are against violent video games somehow have a point to make too in their arguments. I played the game countless times and enjoyed it, but never had the motive not even a bit to go out and kill cops or peds just for the thrill of it. But at the same time, I'm worried too that "violent" video games might have some bad influence on some people with weaker or troubled minds.

 

Maybe it's all about strict control. Maybe we can compare games like SA to that of gun: If it isn't controlled & utilized properly, it can kill.

Edited June 20, 2005 by srg

[dertyjerzian]

I use GTA games to help prepare my mind for when Fifty Cent says it's time to get it crunk.

 

You should blame the taliban for using MS flight sim as training and giving us souljas ideas like that hahaha.

[SanAndreasFool]

to my knowledge and memory, i'm recalling as many missions as possible from GTA3, VC, and those i've done in SA so far, and i can't think of a single one where it is actually required to kill a cop to pass a mission, but feel free to correct me if i'm wrong. I've played all 3 for many years and have never felt any kind of violent tensions...the games/game makers aren't to blame, like other people said, the games don't teach you how to handle the weapons...i've never actually fired a real gun but i think i can safely assume it's alot different that clicking the mouse or pressing a button.

lol.... dont you kill tenpenny? polaski? do they not count? in VC when u have to break into the mall, and blow up the coffee shop....u kill the cops to get their uniforms...? i'm sure there are more

[Tril]

You only kill Pulaski in SA...

And in VC you only kill the 2 cops in the Lock-Up...

And GTA3 you kill the squealer cop on a boat...

GTASA:???

GTAVC:'Cop Land'

GTA3:'Gone Fishing'

 

It'z cuz they're all just a group of greedy f*ckz...

They just want the damn money...

 

"I thought you were handling this,

Now where is the damn MONEY?" ~Ken Rosenburg

[srg]

Well in SA there isn't a mission that has a main objective of killing cops, but there are some missions that make it necessary for you to kill some to survive the situation. In fact respect level and criminal rating are even upgraded if you kill cops.

 

But thing is, CJ is supposed to be on the opposite side of the law so he must act accordingly at times as such. Somehow it's all a matter of player's decision what to do with CJ. If anyone wants to play the game, then he/she must accept the fact of the matter and fact of his game's life as a thug to be on that situation.

[OzzySM12]

There was a thing on TV here in then UK, saying all the crap is evil in the game... and tehy had this one guy on you said "This is as bad as child porn"... I dont know about you but I dont think GTA is that sick... also this guy was the head of a group that was trying to ban f*cking everything, right down to toy soldiers... as apparently they were sick and perverted as well ... he was a nutcase...

 

anyway, the game is an 18, and if any 18 year old or even people under that age, see in a computer game that you can run poeple over and its ok... and then think you can do that in real life... then they deserver to be locked up in a mentel home...