The ebook edition of this title is Open Access, thanks to Knowledge Unlatched funding, and freely available to read online.
In recent decades the video games industry has grown astronomically, quickly becoming a substantial part of our everyday lives. Alongside the rise of this technology, the media, academia and, in some cases, governments, have drawn correlations between video games and serious instances of violence, focusing most notably on mass shootings. This narrow debate has distracted from our understanding of many of the harms which video games can, in some cases, cause, perpetuate or hide.
Drawing upon the emerging deviant leisure perspective, this book seeks to re-orientate the debate on video games and their associated potential harms. Through the examination of culturally embedded harms such as gambling, sexual violence and addiction, together with the rise in swatting and other activities, the authors explore the notion that video games are inexplicably intertwined with aspects of deviancy.
Chapter 1.Introduction; Craig Kelly, Adam Lynes and Kevin Hoffin
Chapter 2. Social Scientists as the Architects of their own Defeat in the Study of Video Games; Max Hart
Chapter 3. A chronology of video game deviance; Kevin Hoffin and Elaine DeVos
Chapter 4. Death by Swat: The Three Elements of Swatting; John Bahadur Lamb
Chapter 5. Addiction, gambling and Gaming: Chasing the Digital Dragon; Melindy Brown and Saabirah Osman
Chapter 6. The democratisation of white-collar criminality in video games; Craig Kelly and Adam Lynes
Chapter 7. Representation of LGBTQ Communities in the Grand Theft Auto Series; Ben Colliver
Chapter 8. The Normalisation of Sexual Deviance and Sexual Violence in Video Games; Kevin Hoffin and Geraldine Lee-Treweek
Chapter 9. 'Gaming the System?' The Merits, Myth and Realities in Understanding Prison Architect: Security, Rehabilitation and Violence as Represented in the World's Bestselling Carceral Video Game; James Treadwell
Chapter 10. Conclusion; Craig Kelly, Adam Lynes and Kevin Hoffin
