Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Elford Stephens, Phil Thomas, and Kate Lynch. In today's episode, we take a deep dive into the research that claims playing violent video games leads to aggression, antisocial behavior, and violent crime. The gang examine the evolution of "violent video games" as a political issue in the United States, why so much of the research is flawed,  and the motivations of the people and organizations behind the studies.

Topics discussed include:  a video game based on C. Everett Koop, the relationship between video games and sass, and the chilling relationship between violent video game studies and police violence.

If you want to know more about the debate over violent video game research, check out Patrick M. Markey and Christopher J. Ferguson, Moral Combat: Why  the War on Violent Video Games is Wrong (Dallas, TX: BenBella Books, 2017) .

For more on Dave Grossman, check out the following pieces:
Josh Eells, "Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, the 'Killologist' Training America's Cops," Mens Journal (February 8, 2017):  https://www.mensjournal.com/health-fitness/lt-dave-grossman-the-self-described-killologist-training-americas-cops-w463304/
Bryan Schatz, "'Are You Prepared to Kill Somebody?' A Day With One of America’s Most Popular Police Trainers," Mother Jones (March/April 2017): https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/02/dave-grossman-training-police-militarization/.

Theme Music: Occam's Sikhwee by Sikh Knowledge (Free Music Archive: https://bit.ly/33G4sLO), used under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 US (https://bit.ly/33JXogQ) 

More info, including show notes and sources at http://scandalousgamespodcast.wordpress.com.