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Gory computer games and video nasties do not make teenagers more aggressive - and may even turn them off violence.

Films such as Clockwork Orange, games including Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto, and even rock music has been blamed for fuelling youth violence.

But a new study has found no link between being exposed to such violent media and real-world violent acts. 

Researchers from Stetson University in Florida studied the history of violent films and games, (Grand Theft Auto V pictured) and homicide rates between 1920 and 2011. They discovered that, overall, violence and murder rates were not correlated

Researchers studied the history of violent films released between 1920 and 2005 and compared this to murder rates.

They also looked at the number of teenagers playing popular 18-rated computer games on their consoles, and teenage violence rates from 1996 to 2011.

The study, published in the Journal of Communication, is the first to suggest that movie violence and video game violence consumption has increased over time, but that there is little evidence that this has caused a problem for society.

Christopher Ferguson of Stetson University said: 'Society has a limited amount of resources and attention to devote to the problem of reducing crime.

'There is a risk that identifying the wrong problem, such as media violence, may distract society from more pressing concerns such as poverty, education and vocational disparities and mental health.

'This research may help society focus on issues that really matter and avoid devoting unnecessary resources to the pursuit of moral agendas with little practical value.'

The film study used independent raters to evaluate the frequency, and how graphic, the violence was in popular movies.

These were then compared to murder rates.

The researchers found that, overall, movie violence and homicide rates were not correlated. 

In particular, researchers studied the history of violent films released between 1920 and 2005 (1971 film Clockwork Orange is pictured) and compared this to murder rates. They also looked at the number of teenagers playing 18-rated computer games, and teenage violence rates from 1996 to 2011

During the mid-20th century, violence and homicide rates correlated 'slightly', but this reversed after 1990 and violence correlated with fewer homicides. Earlier this week, Rockstar Games announced it has added a first-person mode to its Grand Theft Auto V game (pictured) for Xbox One, PS4 and the PC

However, during the mid-20th century, movie violence and homicide rates did appear to correlate slightly, which may have led some to believe a larger trend was at play.

But this was reversed after 1990 so that movie violence became correlated with fewer homicides.

Prior to the 1940s, movie violence was similarly related to fewer homicides, not more.

The computer game study used the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) ratings to estimate the violent content of the most popular video games.

The popularity of the games were then compared to nationwide data on youth violence rates during the same years.

It found the increased playing of violent video games was strongly correlated with declines in youth violence.

But it concluded that such a correlation is most likely due to chance and does not indicate video games caused the decline in youth violence.