We are thankful to be welcome on these lands in friendship. The lands we are situated on are covered by the Williams Treaties and are the traditional territory of the Mississaugas, a branch of the greater Anishinaabeg Nation, including Algonquin, Ojibway, Odawa and Pottawatomi. These lands remain home to many Indigenous nations and peoples.

We acknowledge this land out of respect for the Indigenous nations who have cared for Turtle Island, also called North America, from before the arrival of settler peoples until this day. Most importantly, we acknowledge that the history of these lands has been tainted by poor treatment and a lack of friendship with the First Nations who call them home.

This history is something we are all affected by because we are all treaty people in Canada. We all have a shared history to reflect on, and each of us is affected by this history in different ways. Our past defines our present, but if we move forward as friends and allies, then it does not have to define our future.

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Steven Downing
PhD

Associate Professor

Criminology and Justice

Faculty of Social Science and Humanities

Contact information

Bordessa Hall - Room 502
Downtown Oshawa
55 Bond Street East
Oshawa, ON

905.721.8668 ext. 3805

steven.downing@ontariotechu.ca

Background

Dr. Downing received his PhD in Criminology from The University of Texas at Dallas. His research has employed ethnography and mixed qualitative methods to study on and offline deviant and criminal subcultures as well as representations of crime in media such as film and video games. His current research considers how crime and deviance are framed, enacted, and may evolve in the emerging metaverse.

Education

MA, Sociology University of Texas at Dallas
PhD, Criminology University of Texas at Dallas

Courses taught

Cybercrime
Qualitative Methods

Research and expertise

Research Summary

Research background and interests:

Crime & Deviance in the Metaverse
Digital Ethnography

Research supervision areas:

Ethnography
Mixed Qualitative Methods
Cybercrime

Involvement

Selected publications
Levan, Kristine & Steven Downing. (2022). Crime, Punishment and Video Games. Lexington Books.

Levan, Kristine, Cesaroni, Carla, & Steven Downing. (2020). (Mis)Representations of Prison: Gender- and Prison-Themed Video Games. Games and Culture, 15(6): 653-669.

Lee, Jin & Steven Downing. (2019). Nonconsensual Intimate Image Sharing: A Perception Analysis. International Journal of Cybersecurity and Cybercrime, 2(2): 23-43.

Downing, Steven, Levan, Kristine, & Katherine Polzer. (2018). Boys in the Hood and Vampires in the Woods: Racialized Fatalism in Cinema. Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society, 19(3): 74-88.

Downing, Steven, Levan, Kristine, & Katherine Polzer. (2018). Boys in the Hood and Vampires in the Woods: Racialized Fatalism in Cinema. Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society, 19(3): 74-88.

Reid, Samantha & Steven Downing. (2018). Survival Themed Video Games and Cultural Constructs of Power. Loading…, 11(18): 41-57.

Downing, Steven. (2018). Virtual Parent-Child Relationships: A Case Study. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 11(1): 1-12.

Downing, Steven, & Jennifer Powers. (2017). They’re not Mean Girls if they are Adult Women: Reality Television’s Construction of Female Identity and Interpersonal Aggression. Sociological Research Online, 23(1): 3-20.

Downing, Steven and Kristine Levan. (In Press). Pains of Imprisonment in a “Lock Em’ Up” Video Game: Implications for a Peacemaking Discourse Through New Media Experiences. Contemporary Justice Review.

Downing, Steven and Bobby Copeland. (2015). Criminality, Interpersonal Proximity and the Stop-Snitching Code: An Examination of Offender and Non-Offender Perceptions. Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 26(3): 143-161.

Downing, S, Polzer, K and Levan, K: Space, Time and Reflexive Interviewing: Implications for Qualitative Research with Active, Incarcerated and Former Criminal Offenders. International Journal of Qualitative Methodology, 12: 478-497, 2013.

Cesaroni, C, Downing, S and Alvi, S: Bullying Enters the 21st Century? Turning a Critical Eye to Cyberbullying Research. Youth Justice, 12(3): 199-211. (featured in Anderson Cooper’s CNN Special: The Bully Effect, March, 2013), 2012.

MacDiarmid, L and Downing, S: A ‘Rough’ Aging out: Graffiti Writers and Subcultural Drift. International Journal of Criminal Justice Sciences, 7(2): 619-631, 2012.

Downing, S: Retro Gaming Subculture and the Social Construction of a Piracy Ethic. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 5(1): 749-771, 2011.

Downing, S: Gaming Subculture, Social Control and Virtual Criminality: An Ethnographic Account. Internet Journal of Criminology, 2011.

Levan, K, Polzer, K and Downing, S: Media and Prison Sexual Assault: How We Got to the “Don’t Drop the Soap” Culture. Internet Journal of Criminology and Sociological Theory, 4(2): 674-682, 2011.

Downing, S: Street Justice: A Theoretical Paradigm. Contemporary Justice Review, 14(2): 125-147, 2011.

Downing, S: Social Control in a Subculture of Piracy. Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 17(1): 77-123, 2010.

Downing, S: Online Gaming and the Social Construction of Virtual Victimization. Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture, 4(2): 287-301, 2010.

Downing, S: Attitudinal and Behavioral Pathways of Deviance in Online Gaming. Deviant Behavior, 30(3): 293-320, 2009.
Recent conference presentations
2014, American Society of Criminology, Methods of Studying Cyberbullying: Critiques and New Directions.

2013, Borders, Fences and Walls Conference, Montreal, Quebec, Racialized Borders: Hypothesizing the Diasporic Implications of Discriminatory Surveillance at Canadian Borders, with Alana Saulnier.

2012: American Society of Criminology, Panel Chair, Advances in Qualitative Methods in Criminology, Space, Time and Reflexive Interviewing: Implications for Qualitative Criminology, with Dr. Kristine Levan and Dr. Katherine Polzer.

2011: American Society of Criminology, Why did Cyberbullying Supersede Hate Crime? Mass Distraction and the Tyler Clementi Case, with Dr. Carla Cesaroni and Dr. Shahid Alvi.

Steven Downing PhD