TOP psychologists have come out in defence of violent video games.

Experts claim games — including those considered violent — actually have a positive social impact.

5 Credit: Getty Images

British politicians have long blamed a “diet of war games and Grand Theft Auto” for a surge in shootings sparked by gang and drug feuds across the UK.

Just last year a Judge blamed Call of Duty for an assault on a child after a gamer grew irritated at being killed off too many times.

A top commander even told the RAF to employ teen gamers to blast ISIS with Reaper drones.

But avid gamers and psychology experts Patrick M. Markey, PhD, and Christopher J. Ferguson, PhD found that countries were video games are popular are considered the safest.

They write in their new book Moral Combat: Why the War on Violent Video Games is Wrong: "For example, the twenty countries where video games are most popular do not normally face such dire conditions, but they do vary in terms of video game sales and violent crime.

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"When we look at these countries, we find that, contrary to the fear that video games make society more dangerous, the opposite tends to be true.

"As we see in the figure below, the countries that consume the most video games are among the safest nations in the world. In fact, the three countries with the fewest game sales had a nearly 200 percent higher average violent crime rate than the three countries that sold the most games."

The United Kingdom and Japan are the biggest game players on Earth, according to statistics. Between us and Japan we spend almost five million for everyone 100,000 citizens on games.

5 A graph from the new book, Moral Combat: Why the War on Violent Video Games is Wrong Credit: MORAL COMBAT

5 A screenshot from GTA 2

5 Grand Theft Auto V was a global smash but critics claimed it makes children more violent Credit: Getty Images

Dr. Markey writes: "Before you change your mind and decide to vacation in a “safer” locale, you might want to consult the chart below, which displays the twenty countries with the world’s highest rates of video game sales.

"Most of the countries displayed in the chart above are fairly safe places to visit.

"The State Department hasn’t issued advisories against travel to Tokyo or London, where the streets are teeming with gamers.

5 Hooked ... Brits spend hours playing games like Call of Duty

"According to Washington-based IntelCenter, the countries you might want to avoid are Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and Yemen, as these are among the most violent in the world.

"No one would ever suggest that the violence in these countries is due to Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty because we recognise that it can be traced back to political instability, religious and militant extremism, ongoing civil wars, famine, and corrupt governments."

It's difficult to compare the data, taken from a report in the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, as nation's gaming tendencies rely on economic and political factors.

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But their message has been championed as refreshing change from typically negative dialogue around shoot-em-up games and violence among youngsters.

Dr Markey is a Professor of Psychology,the Director of the Interpersonal Research Laboratory at Villanova University, and a former President of the Society for Interpersonal Theory and Research.

Dr Christopher Ferguson is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Department Chair at Stetson University.

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