You wonder where the morons that attack games get their figures from. “Crime is up,” they say, “and it’s because of them video games.” We’ve had our favourite ex-lawyer (you know the one) attach every M-rated game under the sun to some crime or another, and Congressman Joe Baca is currently proposting that games be decorated with cigarette-style warning labels.

Since Baca was recently named one of the Top 10 Worst Members of Congress by Esquire magazine, it makes sense to assume that what he and plenty of other critics say about games is wrong, and that we should instead assume the opposite. And – would you believe it? – the inverse really is true. As games sales have shot up, crime levels have decreased, with official figures to show the trend. Wonderful details await after the jump!

When Rep. Baca pitched his legislation, he explained in the accompanying press release that “research continues to show a proven link between playing violent games and increased aggression in young people.” I’d love to see this research!

While Rep. Baca can’t produce this research to back up his words, we gamers can produce our own evidence to back up our point of view. With NPD sales figures and the FBI’s crime statistics from 2008 to hand we can see that, in America at the very least, game sales have gone up and crime has fallen.

To put it exactly, violent crime dropped by 3.5% in the first half of 2008, compared to the first half of 2007. In the same period of 2008, hardware sales peaked at $8.1billion; in 2007 this figure was $6.1billion. That’s almost paltry in comparison! Not only has crime dropped by 3.5%, console sales have increased by 33%. Somewhere in the deep, empty chasms of my brain, that means something good.

The fact of the matter is, the bullshitters on the extremes of politics who somehow land themselves in high-paid jobs are terribly, terribly wrong and rubbish at everything they do. Which is why they end up on Top 10 Worst lists or ordered out of their profession on a permanent basis. And we have the figures to prove it!

Amid Rising Game Console Sales, Crime Declines – GamePolitics
The 10 Worst Members of Congress – Esquire via GamePolitics