Sex, Violence and Transgression - Essay Example

Case Study Devin Moore Case (2005). This case played a key role in identifying whether video games promoting violence had any affect on the children and teenagers. In 2005, Devin Moore was convicted of murdering Arnie Strikland, James Crump and Ace Mealer. The latter two were the police officers while the former was a dispatcher. In June 2003, Devin Moore shot police officers who had detained him for purportedly stealing a car. It is reported that he had snatched a .40 calibre gun from one of the officers and shot the three of them before running away from the police station in a police car. The 16 year old Devin Moore was fan of the video game Grand Theft Auto and used to play it for hours. On August 12, 2005, Jack Thompson, an American activist, filed a case in the Alabama court against Sony. Thompson claimed video games are promoting violence and it was due to such a video game which Moore had played endlessly which has compelled him to shoot the policemen. Devin Moore pleaded guilty saying that it the game ‘Grand Theft Auto (GTA)’ that caused him to kill those police officers and he was under the influence of that game. Grand Theft Auto is a video game wherein the player acts as a street mugger who steals cars. He attempts to over run any pedestrian who comes in his way, liberates a criminal from the police station and runs off by shooting the policemen. The families of the victims argued that Moore replayed all that he had experienced as a player in the violent video game. Devin Moore was only 16 years old. At the time of his arrest, Moore is reported to have said “Everybody has got to die.” This statement was later changed in 2004 in a court session to “Life is a video game. You’ve got to die sometimes.” What lead him to utter these words? More importantly, what made him change his statement? One of the reasons could be that he wanted everyone to believe that it was indeed the video game which was to be blamed and not him. Or may be he was so mentally disturbed that he could fathom the consequences of changing his statement. As per Moore’s father, Moore had been a disturbed child right from childhood and had a record of taking drugs and being involved in crime. While Devin Moore said that he was under the trance of the game that he had completely lost the ability to differentiate between reality and the game. Also his lawyer claimed that he was suffering from a dissociative order (Chalk, The Escapist, 2007). Moore appealed not guilty as he had developed a psychological defect by playing the game for long hours and this deprived him of the sense to evaluate his own actions. Moreover, he also claimed that he had been a victim of child abuse. All these arguments failed to convince the jury to vote in favour of Devin Moore. Devin Moore was decreed to death in 2005 for his crime by giving him a poisonous injection. What the jury failed to investigate or give a thought to was the question that how can a 16 year old boy manage to snatch a gun from a well-trained police officer. Not only had this but he very conveniently shot three officers before anyone can stop him. Had the investigation been prolonged and the jury insisted to dig further into the matter, we had been better able to understand the plight of the young criminal. If Moore was under the sway of the video game GTA, he should have been given one chance and put under medical care. According to Jack Thompson (the same activist who filed a case against Sony and other such makers of violent video games), GTA acted as a stimulus to Moore and he did what he was programmed to do. What he meant was that constant exposure to the game provided Devin Moore as a training to kill the cops as he used to do so in the video game. The question arises whether the violence illustrated in the video game can be harmful enough that a teenager can resort to actually killing people? The answer to this query was provided by a child psychologist by the name of David Walsh. According to Walsh, the brain of a teenager is not fully developed and if a teenager has had a troubled childhood then watching acts of violence repeatedly can cause him to commit heinous crimes. (Leung, 60 Minutes, 2009) Everyone has their own ways of dealing with situations of anger and aggression. Children and teenagers can be influenced by such games as they put a great deal of pressure on their minds. Some of them are able to suppress it while others can take this strain and resort to illicit activities. Some researches have also revealed that graphic violence does lead to aggression and criminal activities especially in the video games wherein first-person shooting or fighting takes place. The children completely fail to discern the ‘virtual reality’ from actual reality. However, some people had a totally different view of the situation. Some said that the violence in the video games had nothing to do with the murder. Hundreds and thousands of children around the world are playing such games and they do not go on killing people. According to them if someone has a criminal mind only then can they resort to such an act. In addition to this, the family of the deceased did not care whether Devin was under the influence of the game or not. The sued both Devin Moore and Wal-Mart and GameStop which sold the game to Devin Moore. Shift in the ways of punishment: Foucault regards punishment as complex social function. He discusses that there has been a transition in the ways punishment is administered nowadays. Primarily the punishment was aimed to bring suffering to the body so that the prospective criminals can be discouraged from committing offenses. Currently, the new concept has emerged wherein the focus has shifted from the body to the soul. The pain being afflicted to the body is reduced by using ways of punishment that lead to instant death minimum pain. The ways include guillotine, lethal injections and the like. In Devin Moore’s case, he was sentenced to death by injected him with a lethal injection. The important point to discuss here is whether the modern ways of punishing are better than the traditional ones. Some people argue that since the punishments have become less painful, the perpetrators no longer fear the dire consequences that could take place. Judgment becomes fragmented: Foucault argues that nowadays the judgment has become fragmented. Initially, the judge was the sole entity who would pass on his judgment on the nature of the crime. In this day and age, the rise of human sciences has changed the traditional system of justice. Now the psychiatrists, psychologists, forensics and doctors appraise the criminal rather than the crime itself. These people decide whether the person being tried is ‘normal’ or ‘abnormal’. Keeping Devin Moore’s case in mind, the point is exemplified when the child psychologist drives his point home by saying that repeated exposure to the violent video game developed a tendency in Moore to shoot three police officers. Discipline and Punish & the concept of Power According to Foucault, the way we behave towards delinquents defines the way in which power functions in our society. He believes that power does not remain at one place. it keeps circulating in the society. In Moore’s case, the jury and the judge exercised what Foucault referred to as ‘Sovereign Power’. The jury took a corrective action to deter a perpetrator from committing further crimes. The jury showed no regard as to what circumstances surrounded Devin and right away regarded him to be guilty. Had they given a thought to the history of Moore’s past and his current activities, they would have realized that the circumstances were more to be blamed than him. Devin Moore had been abused during his childhood. This had a considerable effect on him. Due to this, he never really functioned as a normal child. The significant factor that needs to be mentioned here is his exposure to the violent game. GTA is a very famous game and its billion copies have been sold and still are. Instead of blaming a teenager, why did not the jury give a thought to the fact many of the children are being exposed to such violence inducing games everyday. Jury members could have taken an alternative route by holding the makers of GTA responsible and by demanding to ban its sales. Another form of power that Foucault talks about is the ‘Disciplinary Power’. According to this notion, certain norms and standards are set up according to which the soul of an individual is disciplined. The aim of this is to reorient the individual by removing the deviant behaviour from his personality. This correction leads to the ‘surveillance of the individual’. Keeping Moore’s incident in view, the judge and jury could have exercised Disciplinary Power by giving Moore a chance to mend his ways and become a law-abiding citizen. But this did not happen. The society chose to exercise the Sovereign Power by sentencing an 18 year to death. References Chalk, Andy, (2007, September 16). Alabama Cop-Killer Appeals Sentence, Says GTA Made Him Do It. The Escapist. Retrieved from http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/77031-Alabama-Cop-Killer-Appeals-Sentence-Says-GTA-Made-Him-Do-It Farrell, Nick, (2005, August 12). Grand Theft Auto player gets death penalty-The price of not being under the influence. The Inquirer. Retrieved from http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1014067/grand-theft-auto-player-death-penalty Leung, Rebecca, (2009, February 11) Can a Video Game Lead to Murder? 60 Minutes: CBS News. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/04/60minutes/main678261.shtml Smith, Tony, (2005, August 11). ‘Grand Theft Auto’ Killer Cop Found Guilty-Game Playing Did Not Affect Outcome. The Register. Retrieved from http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/08/11/gta_not_guilty/ Read More