research

Michael W. Robinson

SSGS300

January 26, 2025

Justice and Media: Annotated Bibliography

The topic of study for this annotated bibliography is “The Influence of social media on criminal behavior and Investigations.” The purpose is to understand social media and how it relates to the criminal justice system.

Annotated Bibliography

Bostic, B. (2014). Does social media perpetuate youth violence?
Michigan Youth Violence Prevention Center.

This article reviews how social media propagates crime. It explores how violence is enhanced through social media. It talks of how gangs have turned to social media to call out their rivals and to invite them to a shootout or to provoke them to violence. This often results in shootings that are often fatal. Social media has also led to the creation of fight compilations, where people meet to fight while others stay aside and record. This exposure to violence by the youth regularly, according to the article, often results in antisocial behavior that is defined by feelings of hostility and desensitization toward violent behavior. The author also asserts that the environment can have a significant impact on the youth, and if the environment they are exposed to on social media is defined by violence, then they will also turn violent.

The article presents a good avenue to understand how social media influences crime and leads to an increase in crime. It shows how social media can be used as a tool to not only facilitate crime but to breed criminals. By exposing the youth to violent content, they are learning violent behavior which eventually results in them turning to crime.

One of the major gaps in this study is that while the study suggests a correlation between social media and youth violence, it does not establish causation. It does not accurately show whether social media truly causes the youth to be violent and how this relationship exists. This could be firmly established through a longitudinal study. Another gap is that it does not speak of algorithmic influence. Many social media platforms make use of algorithms to amplify what the person wants to watch. The study does not analyze how these algorithms could expose youth to violence and how these algorithms work to do that.

Cheng, Y. (2023). The Impact of social media on Deviance and Crime.
Journal of Education Humanities and Social Sciences,
22, 873–877. https://doi.org/10.54097/ehss.v22i.14555

This article looks into the role that social media plays in influencing deviant behaviors. It investigates this phenomenon using social learning theory and routine activity theory in a bid to understand how social media platforms can influence criminality. Using social learning theory, the researchers hope to understand how people can learn behaviors from others on social media and how this can lead to criminality. It also uses routine activity theory to understand how social media leads to the convergence of motivated offenders, suitable targets, and lack of capable guardianship, and how this leads to criminality. The paper is qualitative and utilizes information from different sources. It concludes that social media truly does influence deviant behavior as it facilitates the planning, coordination, and spread of content that violates societal norms.

The article is very relevant to the topic of investigation as it shows the impact that online interactions can have on real-life actions. It highlights the potential for social media to shape criminal behavior. By incorporating social learning and routine activity theories, the author provides the means to how social media leads to criminal activity. This provides meaningful insights into my analysis on understanding the relationship between social media and crime.

There are a variety of gaps in the study. For one, the study mainly investigates correlation. There is little insight into the causal relationship between social media and deviant behavior. The article also fails to provide proper insight into how exactly social media leads to crime. It makes it hard for a solution to be found concerning this framework. It also fails to address the different cultural contexts in which social media is used and how this affects deviant behavior.

Salter, M. (2016). Crime, Justice and Social Media. Routledge.

This book analyzes how social media platforms have changed the understanding of crime and justice, particularly in the modern era. Salter begins by examining various forms of online abuse, which vary from bullying to the sharing of intimate images without consent. The author makes use of critical theory perspective and asserts that online crime is often perpetrated by men toward women. The book discusses how social media has emerged as a tool for bullying and the perpetration of crime, particularly towards women. It explores various cases of crime perpetuated online and how social media often incentivizes people to crimes, with examples such as 8chan and Anonymous being cited. It shows how social media can glamorize crime and make it appealing to criminals.

However, some gaps in the research can limit the impact of the book. For one, the book is qualitative and reviews events that have already happened. It features no longitudinal studies. Given the rapidly evolving nature of social media, longitudinal studies can provide insight into how online abuse, framing, and justice-seeking behaviors have changed over time. There is also a gap in comparative platform analysis. It would have been very good for the book to perform how different social media platforms handle crime and justice.

Another gap is that since the book was released, a lot has changed in the social media landscape. X (formerly known as Twitter) has emerged as one of the most politically charged social media platforms. There is a clear relationship between politics and crime, and this presents a great avenue for understanding how X, which is more popular than 8chan, influences crime.

Yu, T., Venkatagiri, S., Lourentzou, I., & Luther, K. (2023, April). Sedition Hunters: A Quantitative Study of the Crowdsourced Investigation into the 2021 US Capitol Attack. In 
Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2023 (pp. 3849-3858).

This article analyzes the Sedition Hunters. This was a group based on Twitter (now X) that dedicated their time to identifying the participants of the attack on the US Capitol that took place on January 6, 2021. The article provides an understanding of how social media can be used as a tool for those seeking justice to catch perpetrators of crime. The Sedition Hunters made use of the information-sharing capabilities associated with social media to identify suspects, including disseminating images, videos, and other relevant data to aid in identifying those who were guilty of raiding the Capitol. The researchers found that social media analysis was critical in helping those who were guilty. They also found that there are people in society who are influential and who can play pivotal roles in the community by coordinating efforts and sharing information to enhance the effectiveness of crowdsourced investigations. The article can be very helpful in providing information on how social media can be used as a platform for helping enhance justice through catching criminals. It also highlights the challenges associated with this endeavor such as maintaining data accuracy, maintaining ethical standards, and safeguarding privacy.

The one gap that exists is the long-term implications of crowdsourced investigations such as the one investigated in this study. As a result of the endeavors by the Sedition Hunters, the information of many people was leaked out. The article fails to show the long-term impacts of these actions and how their legal and ethical implications. The study also fails to show the impact of similar actions on other platforms. The pursuit to find those guilty during the US Capitol attack went beyond Twitter. The study fails to show how other platforms played a role. The study also fails to show the role that Law Enforcement played during investigations. It does not delve deeply into how such efforts integrate with formal law enforcement practices.

2

Criminal Justice Formal Written Paper Rubric

Zero points: Student failed to submit the final paper.

Each student will be required to complete the term project, which is a research proposal written in an APA Style. The project should have at least 1000-words of substance not counting the cover and reference page. Please include a Cover Page, an abstract and a list of references. The research proposal you write in this course will NOT be sent to the IRB for approval. This is because you will not be conducting actual research for the purposes of this class. You will however gain an insight as to how to write a research proposal.

Each student will be required to complete a research proposal, as the term project. The research proposal will include the following:

· Title page

· Abstract (100-120 words)

· Introduction

· Hypothesis/Problem Statement/Purpose Statement

· Literature Review and Definitions included in research

· Research methods/design

· References

· Appendices – as needed (annotated bibliography, example consent form, example survey if used)

The research proposal (Term Project) must be in a Word Document ( ) uploaded to the student’s folder through the assignment section. Students will be required to use at least five scholarly references in their work.

Students are required to follow APA Style guidelines.
Please make sure that you are using the course-writing rubric to use as a checklist so that you write a solid paper.
Students must use a topic, which was approved by the instructor or their research proposal.

Do not include quotes in your work. The student needs to display good critical thinking skills and not a string of quotes written by published authors. Your proposal is what is needed for a successful research project to be conducted in the future.
Do not wait to the last minute to research, write, format, and edit. Proper time management is required to turn in a quality research proposal that highlights your understanding of how to conduct scholarly research.