Does anyone think that crime commited in Grand Theft Auto influence people to commit crimes themselves?

I don't think it does, I just think people get stupid ideas from things like games, movies, TV and brainstorm what they can do. Or in some cases monkey see monkey do. In the end I think it is the weak minded people that do things like that.

no, i think that it is just a game, but some people think that it has an influence on the children. if they believe that then they shouldn't buy it for their kids...that ends the vicious circle of complaining moms.

no, i dont believe that the crimes shown in GTA will encourage people to commit the crimes themselves. the game is for 18's and over (well in the UK it is, im not sure about in america) and people over 18 should be able to know that obviously you cant commit crimes like this in real life so it will just be stupid. even children would be able to understand that you just cant do stuff like that in real life. b ut then again some kids might do some of the crimes just to see how far they can take it.....

I don't think it'll have an effect on most people, young or old. It's hard for kids to tell the difference between reality and fantasy sometimes, but I also think we give them too little credit. They're smarter than we think.
On the other hand, I believe that games like that can trigger something in people that's not completely stabile. People that are capable of doing things that they shouldn't do in the first place, and games, movies etc can be that thing that makes them take the final step. My point is that it's the people playing the game, not the game itself that's the problem.

Games, TV and radio do not encourage people to commit crime, people make those choices on their own.

On the weak minded, yes it can. It cannot make them actually go out and commit the crime, but it can provoke violence in those who are weak of mind and prone to violence.

most Psychologists agree that there is a correlation between video game violence and violence in the real world.

Violent Video Games: Myths, Facts, and Unanswered Questions

Video-game maker blamed in '04 killing : Local : Albuquerque Tribune

I never knew that in Grand Theft Auto that it taught you how to put together, clean, lock and load a gun. I'm not an expert on guns and I don't have any, but I'm pretty sure you can't (you probably can in some places) just see a loaded gun ready to shoot.

I would love to see the police report that said this. It could be just another way for the media to blow something completely out of proportion.

Ah I remember reading that awhile ago.

The problem is that a lot of these studies don't mention that they test video game reactions on kids with prexisting violent tendencies. This is obviously the wrong way to go about as almost any person with a functional brain will tell you that tempting a violent person with violence is just going to make them violent as well! That's like asking, "If a happy person is shown happy things, will they be more happy?" Of course!

The problem with violence and video games is that everyone is different. Most kids do not react violently, we know that merely by seeing how many M-rated games get sold on a daily basis and the number of kids who are chopping up their classmates right now. Everyone handles things differently and you cannot treat game violence with massive studies because the individual is what matters here. Example: I was 9 when I played my first violent game, Mortal Kombat. It was the most controversial game out at the time for it's violence and blood. I played it for a whole weekend and guess what? Ever since then, I've never gotten into a fist fight, killed someone, physically threatend someone, or reacted or treated anyone in a violent manner. Now, someone else could be much different, they could play something like Doom, a highly gorey sci-fi shooter and after a little while, become totally engaged in it. They make the game to be some sort of escape and use it to handle their problems. Let's call the kid in this scenario . . Dylan.

Okay yeah I'll skip being sarcastic, we're talking about Dylan Klebold here, one of the two Columbine Killers. He and Eric Harris played Doom religiously and even made their own levels (some rumored to be modeled after their school, but no evidence exists). Both kids were loners, isolated, and rejected by their peers. Their minds were already in a weakened state and they found their escape in Doom. They even said to one another in a famous quote from the shootings, "This is just like ****in' Doom!" They sat in their parents' basement building bombs and went unnoticed.

My point is that kids who react and lash out violently as a direct result of influence from a video game are usually fragile minded in the first place because a lot of kids are able to differentiate from reality and fantasy and have even a slight comprehension of violence and it's consequences. It's rare that you see a stable-minded individual take a game so seriously that they try and act it out.

Another problem with the study of violent games and behavior is that the statistics can be misleading. For example, at least several times a year, one kid will kill another mimicking their favorite scenes from video games or TV or movies. When the WWE was big, a few kids killed siblings after acting out wrestling moves on one another. Now, some people would argue that that constitutes encouraged violent behavior, which is not true. The kids mimicked what they saw so they could feel and pretend to be their favorite wrestlers, not as a way of reacting to the world around them. These kids who hurt others after being influenced by the games they play are reacting to the world around them, it's nowhere near similar to mimicry.

What researchers and parenting groups shouldn't be doing is ****ing and lashing out at game companies for their content. Parents like that are always too busy trying to change the world and protect their children from it that they tend to ignore the damn children and not raise them. That's not to say parents who care about their kids don't protect them, but what they should be doing is teaching them first. I remember a South Park episode where they made a similar commentary since the parents were so busy getting angry at the big company apparently "brain-washing" their children that the kids got into more trouble since the parents were more occupied with their protesting and outrage.

Should parents be ignoring this stuff? No, but are their priorities off? Yes. What should be done is that parents need to take a larger role in teaching their children the difference between reality and fiction. Because let's face it, you can be involved in your child's life only so much but they're going to be exposed or get into trouble some how, so it's best to prepare them. That's not to say you should accept the inevitable, but firing off at companies who produce a game that encourages a young man to kill police officers is not the right way to do it. Not to mention, does anyone ever stop and say, "where was the child's mind when they decided to do this?"

A lot of people seem to forget that a lot of children are able to make their own decisions and if they decide to kill or seriously harm someone, you have to question yourself as a parent as to how you raised them and your child's mind. Child are not all stupid, mindless, and oblivious, they're usually quite aware of what they're doing. However, it's the understanding that people miss out on.