James Delahunty
10 Nov 2008 3:27
Is there anything you can't blame video games for? A recent trial saw a 19 year old sentenced for multiple sex attacks against women. The teenager from Ashford, Kent reportedly took to the streets drunk and stoned looking for women. In one case he broke the arm of a woman in her 40s by dragging her down a hill before sexually assaulting her. In a search of his home, police found a video game that they evidently thought was significant enough to note.
It was, of course, one of the Grand Theft Auto series of games. Remembering that the teenager was reportedly drunk and high at the times of the two attacks that he admitted, the Prosecutor, Eleanor Laws (yes, the Prosecutor!) noted that the amount of time the defendant spent playing the game "may go some way to explaining his attitude towards women."
Perhaps the prosecutor should consider another line of work where her opinion is professional and not intended to make an excuse for a sex offender as she did, in fact, weigh in on a debate that is unresolved by experts who actually study it. He is also 19 years old, this is not a case of a minor being exposed to a game rated for an adult. He is an adult. Or maybe I am wrong, and the Prosecutor only intended it as personal opinion.
Judge Philip Statman noted in his judgment, though "it is not for this court to enter into this controversy as to whether such conduct is encouraged by pornographic material and video games such as Grand Theft Auto which seems, in my judgment and from what I have heard and read, does show scant respect for women."
While the game can be perceived as showing disrespect for women, elements of the game exist in reality. Prostitutes are real (although using their services probably won't boost your health significantly), and while you can literally hack a woman to bits with a chainsaw in some of the GTA series titles, you can also do the same to a man.
Whether or not women are singled out in the GTA series for extra hate is not something I can answer, and I do understand that some people are genuinely upset about their contents. Regardless, linking the games to crimes in the real world of this nature (and in the past to firebombing and even murder) in the course of a trial doesn't seem logical, and once again it singles out "video games" as somehow separate from an influential point of view to the content in movies or song lyrics.