The same is true of violent movies. I haven't read the above study, but with movies the inverse relationship is somewhat tenuous IMHO.
Basically with movies, this is measured by looking at violent crime rates on weekend when blockbuster violent movies come out - the theory being that the kinds of people who would be committing the crimes are all busy watching the movie instead. These studies do very little to inform policy about whether this is true over the longer term, across generations, or across society more broadly - which is a more pertinent question.
Pan-national studies also do very little to inform on this topic because of two large national outliers - Japan and the United States. If you remove these two countries from the studies, there is very little correlation between much at all and social outcomes.
I say the jury is still out - however, free speech and artistic expression is still a goal worth pursuing. I tend to gravitate toward the "art reflects society" rather than the "society follows art" course of the argument...
cheers
-tid242
