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Reducing Crime Through Gameplay

Posted by Zonk on from the a-good-use-of-social-gaming dept.

Via Kotaku, a piece on Spong that sees games being put to good use in a social context. Edinburgh, Scotland police officers are using weekly PlayStation 2 tournaments with troubled youths as a way to bridge the gap between law enforcement and folks that (under less auspicious circumstances) they might have confrontations with. From the article: "The tournaments so far have been between members of the local Police Youth Action Team and a group of around 30 youths who are known regular offenders. Since the initiative started it seems to have had the effect of cutting crime in the locality quite dramatically. Officers dealt with 92 complaints in the month before the competition but only 53 while it was running. Ninety-three calls were received during the same period last year."

1 of 26 comments (clear)

  1. All child gamers need is this sort of guidance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    [The following was my respose on Kotaku. I can't register on this site as /. won't seem to let me...]

    You would think that Edinburgh being home to Rockstar North, developer of the Grand Theft Auto series, that this would cause an uproar equal or similar to the negative reaction found all over the world. This is not the case though.

    Our local media concentrates more on the economical benefits of Scotland's gaming industy which of course owes most of its' success to Rockstar and GTA.

    As with the rest of the UK, every GTA game released here has been illegal for those under 18 years of age to purchase and similarly, it has always been an offence for retailers to knowingly supply the game to minor. What the police forces across Central Scotland have realised though is that kids don't play GTA because it's a violent game and they want to 'learn' how to misbehave or anything like that. They understand that kids want to play GTA because it's a good game!

    I think anything that occupies kids outwith of school hours is an excellent idea and this just one example of the good work the police does for Scotland's youth. What's more, the organised gaming mentioned here includes a nice mix of popular titles, which is better still.

    So hopefully the good work continues in convincing people that games are not a danger to children as long as responsible supervision and guidence is provided. And maybe one day, we'll see Grand Theft Auto: Edinburgh!

    giant_frying_pan [giant_frying_pan@yahoo.com]