Violent Video Games and the Supreme Court

“Violent Video Games and the Supreme Court: Lessons for the Scientific Community in the Wake of Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association,” published in the American Psychologist is written by Dr. Chris Ferguson, a graduate of the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program at UCF. 

From the abstract: In June 2011 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that video games enjoy full free speech protections and that the regulation of violent game sales to minors is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court also referred to psychological research on violent video games as “unpersuasive” and noted that such research contains many methodological flaws. Recent reviews in many scholarly journals have come to similar conclusions, although much debate continues. Given past statements by the American Psychological Association linking video game and media violence with aggression, the Supreme Court ruling, particularly its critique of the science, is likely to be shocking and disappointing to some psychologists.

Read the full paper here.

Dr. Ferguson was mentored by Dr. Charles Negy and he represents UCF extremely well with over 80 publications and two books. He is currently Chair of the Psychology and Communication Department at Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) in Laredo, Texas.