The Destructive Impact of Computer Game Content on Juvenile Delinquency

Abstract

The authors analyze the determinants of juvenile crime from the standpoint of the impact of violent computer games on their mental health and delinquent behavior in the modern Russian society. The study is based upon the achievements in psychology and juvenile criminology. The object of the study is students of senior classes of secondary schools from three districts of Saint Petersburg with the most unfavorable criminological situation in the sphere of youth crime (275 persons), and juveniles with delinquent behavior and at least one criminal conviction who study in a specialized educational establishment (225 persons). The goal of the study was to examine the correlation between violent game content consumed by teenagers and their aggressive behavioral reactions. The obtained results proved three hypotheses that were put forward: 1) adolescents with a criminal record use game gadgets more often than their law-abiding peers, and prefer «dangerous» genres of computer games; 2) game content influences the behavioral reactions of such adolescents more intensively than it influences the reactions of their peers; 3) violent computer games do not weaken the aggression of modern teenagers and do not help to ease emotional tension. The obtained results allowed the authors to conclude that there is an evident trend for a growing role of game gadgets for the modern generation of teenagers, and their active use of violent computer games can act as one of the causes of their criminalization and the spread of juvenile crime in the Russian society. The conducted study may contribute to solving the research task of analyzing the causal complex and finding the relevant determinants of criminal behavior of modern adolescents.