Pokémon Gone Wild: The Emergence of Augmented Reality Games and the Perceived Risk of Crimes Against Its Users

• In Event: Impact of Cybercrime on Social Media and Criminal Justice Response: Cyber-terrorism, Cyberbullying, Augmented Reality Game, and Cyber Policing

Abstract

This study examined negative criminogenic effects of the newly launched augmented reality game, Pokémon Go. Using an original sample of tweets retrieved from the Twitter Application Programing Interface (API) following the immediate release of the Pokémon Go (N=14,566), the author employed sentiment analysis to examine people’s perceptions toward Pokémon Go in conjunction with different types of crime. Findings indicate that unlike mainstream media, which covers more violent and serious crimes, the majority of Tweets consisted of (1) misdemeanors that people expected to occur; and (2) crimes that pose imminent threats to people’s daily routine. While assessing the relationship between media and crime prevalence, this study contributes to the growing literature regarding augmented reality games through an empirical assessment of people’s perception toward crimes associated with Pokémon Go.

Author

• Hannarae Lee, Indiana University