Does Movie Violence Increase Violent Crime?

Apparently not. Because the potentially violent people are at the violent movies, rather than out on the street. And they aren’t drinking during that time, too.

Our estimates suggest that in the short run, violent movies deter almost 1,000 assaults on an average weekend. Although our design does not allow us to estimate long-run effects, we find no evidence of medium-run effects up to three weeks after initial exposure.