Did we have a thread on this and I missed it?
QuoteAbstract:
Psychological studies invariably find a positive relationship between violent video game play and aggression. However, these studies cannot account for either aggressive effects of alternative activities video game playing substitutes for or the possible selection of relatively violent people into playing violent video games. That is, they lack external validity. We investigate the relationship between the prevalence of violent video games and violent crimes. Our results are consistent with two opposing effects. First, they support the behavioral effects as in the psychological studies. Second, they suggest a larger voluntary incapacitation effect in which playing either violent or non-violent games decrease crimes. Overall, violent video games lead to decreases in violent crime.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1804959
It was mentioned in passing as one of the theories in my where have all the criminals gone?
Don't think it was so much the video games being violent there though as video games in general keeping kids off the street and away frolm bother.
I knew a guy in Highschool who was murdered over a video game. So I suppose it increased violent crime for at least that guy.