For decades academics have debated whether violent video games contribute to real world violence, but a new study in the journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture argues scientists have been compiling the wrong data.

While lab studies have often found links between video games and “minor or benign forms of aggressive behaviors,” there has been almost no research violence prediction methodology, the study’s authors write.

For the study, researchers compared short-term violent crime statistics with video game sales, release dates of popular violent video games and Internet keyword searches for violent video game guides.

“Contrary to the claims that violent video games are linked to aggressive assaults and homicides, no evidence was found to suggest that this medium was positively related to real-world violence in the United States,” researchers wrote.

The full study is available for purchase HERE.