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From: hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath)
Newsgroups: net.kids
Subject: Re: D&D
Message-ID: <1@ttidcc.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 28-Oct-85 19:01:17 EST
Article-I.D.: ttidcc.1
Posted: Mon Oct 28 19:01:17 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 29-Oct-85 14:38:48 EST
References: <123@mit-hector.UUCP> <1594@shark.UUCP>
Reply-To: hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath)
Distribution: na
Organization: The Cat Factory
Lines: 34
Summary: 

In <123@mit-hector.UUCP> melissa@mit-hector.UUCP (Melissa Silvestre) writes:
>A few weeks ago, 60 Minutes did a show on D&D. Their claim was that there
>are a large number of homocides/suicides which are linked to D&D recently.
>They showed interviews with parents and police in a number of cases, with
>both groups saying "Johnny was obssessed with the game but I didn't realize
>how badly until he stabbed his brother and himself ..." or such stuff.

Since this subject is still making the rounds, I'd like to repeat a summary
of a point I made about the above in net.games.frp and net.suicide:

Apparently unlike 60 Minutes,  I  researched  the  national  statistics  on
teenage  suicide by contacting the local Suicide Prevention Center, looking
in the U.S.  Census data, and consulting with a  professional  demographer.
When  comparing  the  figures derived from this research with those derived
from 60 Minutes' research the following statistic emerged:

        Teenagers who play D&D are _less_ likely to commit suicide
	than the average teenager by a factor of _at least_ 35 TO 1.

Sources:

The Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center
_Statistical Abstract of the United States -- 1985_, The Bureau of the Census


Now, can we _please_ lay this apocryphal nonsense to rest?

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The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe)
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