Social media as a vector for youth violence: A review of the literature

Abstract

Homicide is the second leading cause of death for young people, and exposure to violence has a negative impact on youth mental health, academic performance, and relationships. We demonstrate that youth violence, including bullying, gang violence, and self-directed violence, increasingly occurs in the online space. We review the literature on violence and online social media, and show that while some forms of online violence are limited to Internet-based interactions, others are directly related to face-to-face acts of violence. Central to our purpose is uncovering the real-world consequences of these online events, and using this information to design effective prevention and intervention strategies. We discuss several limitations of the existing literature, including inconsistent definitions for some forms of online violence, and an overreliance on descriptive data. Finally, we acknowledge the constantly evolving landscape of online social media, and discuss implications for the future of social media and youth violence research. Graphical abstractYouth violence | Social media | Gang violence | Cyber-suicide | Electronic dating Article:

Homicide and social media: Global empirical evidence

“…The established findings run contrary to concerns from policy and scholarly circles that Facebook penetration is fuelling murders, conflicts and homicides around the world (see Browning, 2018;Dreyfuss, 2017;Patton et al, 2014;Bejan, 2018;Storrod & Densley, 2017).…”

“…For instances: authorities in the United Kingdom are concerned as to whether social media is not responsible for the recent rise in murders in London (Browning, 2018) and Facebook streaming related murders in the United States (Dreyfuss, 2017). These concerns also pertain to, inter alia: the positive role of social media in youth violence (Patton et al, 2014); the positive effect of social media coverage of "Black Lives Matter" on the risk of fatal victimization of minorities and law enforcement officers (Bejan, 2018) and social media as an instrument of gang violence (Storrod & Densley, 2017). Conversely, another strand of the literature is of the position that social media can be used to alleviate social unrests through collaborative and networking mechanisms.…”

Understanding the Correlates of Face-to-Face and Cyberbullying Victimization Among U.S. Adolescents: A Social-Ecological Analysis

“…Although scant, extant research suggests that community/neighborhood level factors, such as disorganization, economic deprivation, chronic violence, and presence of gang can increase adolescents' vulnerability to victimization (Espelage & De La Rue, 2011;, both offline and online. Most recent research also suggest that some adolescents utilize social media platforms in urban communities to instigate bullying online (see Patton et al, 2013;Patton et al, 2014), which can contribute to cyberbullying victimization. In sum, the present study highlights a critical need for additional research to examine other factors that may increase the risk of face-to-face and cyberbullying victimization, which can contribute to the development of effective practice and policy.…”

Gang violence and social media

“…Gang members can post the equivalent of graffiti on rivals' Facebook walls or Twitter feeds, for instance, send messages and emails that denigrate other gangs, or infiltrate rival webpages and disrupt their chat forums (Moule et al, 2016). Such actions are examples of 'internet banging' that can potentially escalate gang hostilities and stimulate violent retaliation in the real world (Patton, Eschmann, and Butler, 2013;Patton et al, 2014).…”