A study found that when there are violent movies in theaters (maybe just opening weekend?) there are fewer assaults and other crimes. There's also a smaller effect from non-violent movies that appeal to 20-somethings.
The idea is that these people aren't bored, drunk, or using meth and therefore less likely to commit violent acts. Also, there is never a "rebound" spike to make up for the drop in crime.
I'd be curious to see if one could find a positive or negative correlation with game playing and youth violence. Did crime drop when Halo 3 came out?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/07/business/media/07violence.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
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Don't know about crime, but movie ticket sales declined drastically the weekend Halo 3 released - for varying definitions of "drastically." The general opinion was that mostly bad movies were released or out that week, but it didn't stop execs from blaming the game industry for breaking their target demographic:
http://news.filefront.com/film-execs-blame-halo-3-for-poor-movie-ticket-sales/
If the general idea holds - that crime drops when violent movie-goers or gamers are inside being entertained rather than out on the streets - I wonder what the researchers think about MMOs or other long-term game experiences? Even "Gone with the Wind" is only 4 hours long...
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