Violence Archives - Dr Amin Azhari - دکتر امین اظهری

Just a game?

As the latest Call of Duty video game is released today, with Battlefield 2042 and a remastered Grand Theft Auto trilogy to follow later this month, research from City, University of London finds no evidence that violence increases after a new video game is released.

Mass media and general public often link violent video games to real-life violence, although there is limited evidence to support the link.

Debate on the topic generally intensifies after mass public shootings, with some commentators linking these violent acts to the perpetrators’ interests in violent video games.

However, others have pointed out that different factors, such as mental health issues and/or easy access to guns, are more likely explanations.

In the light of these conflicting claims, President Obama called in 2013 for more government funding for research on video games and violence.

But before governments introduce any policies restricting access to violent video games, it is important to establish whether violent video games do indeed make players behave violently in the real world.

The study, published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, focused on boys aged 8-18 years – the group most likely to play violent video games.

Release date: 05 November 2021
Source: City University London

Narcissism linked to aggression

A comprehensive analysis of 437 studies from around the world provides the best evidence to date that narcissism is an important risk factor for both aggression and violence, researchers said.

The link between narcissism and aggression was found for all dimensions of narcissism and for a variety of types of aggression. Results were similar regardless of gender, age, whether they were college students, or country of residence. And, to have an impact, narcissism doesn’t have to be at levels so high as to be pathological. Findings showed that even when narcissism was within what is considered a normal range, higher levels were linked to aggression.

It was published in the journal Psychological Bulletin.

Release date: 25 May 2021
Source: Ohio State University

Covid-19

COVID-19 Isolation Linked to Increased Domestic Violence

While COVID-19-related lockdowns may have decreased the spread of a deadly virus, they appear to have created an ideal environment for increased domestic violence. Extra stress in the COVID-19 pandemic caused by income loss, and lack of ability to pay for housing and food has exacerbated the often silent epidemic of intimate partner violence, suggests a new University of California, Davis, study.

Data collected in surveys of nearly 400 adults for 10 weeks beginning in April 2020 suggest that more services and communication are needed so that even front-line health and food bank workers, for example — rather than only social workers, doctors and therapists — can spot the signs and ask clients questions about potential intimate partner violence. They could then help lead victims to resources, said Clare Cannon, assistant professor of social and environmental justice in the Department of Human Ecology and the lead author of the study.

Research participants in the study completed an online survey asking about previous disaster experience, perceived stress, their current situation as it relates to COVID-19, if they experienced intimate partner violence, and what their personal and household demographics were. In all, 374 people completed the survey. Respondents, whose average age was 47, were asked about how COVID-19 had affected them financially and otherwise.

Of the respondents, 39 reported having experienced violence in their relationship, and 74 percent of those people were women.

The paper, “COVID-19, intimate partner violence, and communication ecologies,” was published in American Behavioral Scientist.

Release date: 24 February 2021
Source: University of California – Davis

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