XP Points to Level Up: Gaming as a ‘Gateway’ Activity to Cybercrime

• In Event: Policing Hacking: Vulnerability, Securitisation, and Criminalisation

Abstract

Law enforcement in the UK (for example, the National Crime Agency) often cite gaming as a ‘gateway’ activity to cybercrime, especially for young people. This follows the hypothesis of a linear progression from gaming to cybercrime, based on the gateway drug theory. Drawing from interviews with and documentary material by law enforcement and the notion of criminalisation, I explore the conceptualisation of gaming as pathological and the role of police practitioners and police practice in this process. More specifically, I examine how gaming is thought to introduce young people to game modification and, subsequently, to low-level and serious cybercrime offending, and how such perceptions are popularized in law enforcement, and operationalised in the design and application of cybercrime interventions. The causal relationship between gaming and cybercrime remains unconfirmed, however, the hypothesis is mobilized to target young people in the cybercrime context.

Author

• Yanna Papadodimitraki, University of Cambridge