The popularity of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat have transformed the way we understand and experience crime and victimisation.
Previously, it’s been thought that people form their opinions about crime from what they see or read in the media. But with social media taking over as our preferred news source, how do these new platforms impact our understanding of crime?
Social media has also created new concerns in relation to crime itself. Victimisation on social media platforms is not uncommon.
However, it is not all bad news. Social media has created new opportunities for criminal justice agencies to solve crimes, among other things.
Thus, like many other advancements in communication technology, social media
These communities facilitate the sharing of information, ideas, messages, photographs, and other content. From an investigative standpoint, I see social media as a multifaceted investigative tool, that with proper training can provide both valuable information from a broad and diverse community. At the time of the Bernardo and Homolka investigation less than 15% of the Canadian population had routine access to the Internet and social media was non-existent. As recently as 2016, 89.8% of the population of Canada have access to the Internet (“Number of Internet Users in Canada”, 2016). Additionally, a recent study found that Canadians spend the most amount of time online, at 45 hours per month.
Social Media has become a huge part of our lives. It is a way to connect to those far away, or to share things that we find interesting or exciting and can be a very personal presentation of who we are. But in both positive and negative ways we can share our opinions and our view on certain events in the world. These can lead to rallies, protests, uprisings or in some cases revolution, the internet has become one of the most influential forces in this world and a large part of that is due to social media. In the case of the Michael Brown shooting, social media focused on the positive and negative relationships between minorities and cops in the United States of America. Sites such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Vine were all used to show
Social media popularity has risen over the past years. The majority of the population of the age, now possesses one or more social accounts. Various articles and news sources have indicated that social media deteriorates person to person interaction and are gateways for cybercrimes to occur. However, behind such negative statements social media does provide a plethora of benefits to society. In fact, social media permits individuals to communicate, provides opportunities for businesses, and educates society.
The media is also another of the greatest challenges for law enforcement. The media never shows the whole story. Chances are the media doesn’t even know the whole story; yet officers are judged by what the media portrays. You can’t hear a news report or even read a newspaper without the race of an individual being identified. This is only fueling the race issue for everyone. It is tearing communities apart. In this aspect, social media appears to be a double edged sword. It can help law enforcement by connecting with the public, tracking criminals, and gathering Intel but it also puts every word or action by an
When using social media, the police department can target, hundreds to thousands of people, to letting them know of what is going on. For example, in my university an email was sent to every person from the school to make sure everyone was aware of a sex offender that was kicked off the campus. Hashtags on Facebook, Twitter, etc. are also used on social media to make people aware of a certain person or crime that has happened or is about to happen. The more people that know of a specific criminal the less, he or she will want to do because everyone has eyes on them. That will cause the criminal to not commit the crime which keeps communities safe. Pictures of criminals with their information given on social media can help the community a lot to identify the person when the police are not around. Many people today will have access to social media which makes it more fast and convenient for people that rather be on social media than read a newspaper. Another example of social media taking part in lowering crime is being able to spread the word on the steps of what the people should be aware of, such as, laws and procedures, that are needed to be known to everyone. Pictures, articles, etc. can be shared person to person spreading the word from city to city. In a matter of seconds a post can go viral and will keep
Police were more advanced in technology in 2015 than they were in 2005. Police officers now use social media websites to monitor criminal activities, especially when criminals are dumb enough to post weapons and talk about crimes they have committed. This can be useful in preventing a crime from occurring when someone gets on social media and makes a threat that they’re going to kill someone.
What factors contribute to this significant gap between perceptions of violent crime and the reality of it? When asked where they obtain their information about crime, an overwhelming plurality of random participants ages 13 to 59 responded with the mass media (Warr, 2013). In the context of this survey and also this paper, the mass media is defined as diverse mainstream media technologies intended to reach a widespread audience (Warr, 2013). This encompasses all television, radio, internet, and paper outlets which broadcast to a wide range of audiences
Criminal investigation techniques will change in the future from the changing culture of today. Today we are a much more technological culture and with that cyber-crimes are occurring more and more frequently. Also on the rise is terrorism which changes how our law enforcement agencies have to operate. The pairing of our technological culture with the rise in terrorism makes for a deadly combination. “Internet technology and the proliferation of social networking sites have changed how terrorist organizations recruit and communicate with would-be acolytes. This development has rendered the collection of intelligence an issue of salience for federal, state, and local authorities” (Mayer & Erickson, 2011, June 23). While our technological culture has had many advantages such as faster communication this has also sown a distrust between many of the community and law enforcement through the use of social media. One bad decision can by a law enforcement officer can become a nationally phenomenon if recorded and shared on social media. This has caused much scrutiny for many law enforcement agencies and has caused distrust of law enforcement.
Today’s world has certainly changed over the years and with media expanding to platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, news has expanded to a vast majority. Over recent years, platforms such as Facebook have allowed the viewing of decapitations, rapes, bullying in schools, gang threats, and even murders to be broadcasted live. Seemingly more of such violence is occurring and being distributed over these social platforms. For instance, the recent live murder of an innocent man by Steve Stephens. A breakdown, or crime, for a moment of notoriety on a live feed is appalling in the least. How could social media, such as Facebook, allow a live airing of a murder and hold it as acceptable, or part of
In tune with the worldwide development and popularity of Hip Hop music, “a symbiotic relationship between culture and law”1 has emerged. “Culture shapes the law, and law is a product of culture”.2 Our society is reminded and alerted to daily neighborhood, state and national crimes via not only online and television news forums, but the various social platforms now heavily relied on: YouTube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. However, it can be argued that these new advances in technology and
Social media is especially useful when it comes to investigations. Police officers have learned that, in using social networks to spread certain cases to the public, more information is retrieved. For instance, sending out an image of the criminal to news stations that later display it to the public often leads to feedback about the whereabouts of the criminal as seen by a citizen. Likewise, through social media accounts, we are more capable of seeing things such as who the criminal associates themselves with, as well as their whereabouts, or places they are likely to go through photo geotagging.
Premise 1: You have easy access to social media nowadays with it being on phones, laptops, and tablets makes it easy for people to access and get involved in things that may later lead to trouble.
Despite the positives, there are many negatives associated with social media. Using social media can make a person more vulnerable to predators and cyber bullying. In this age, “Cyber bulling is quite common, can occur to any young person online, and can cause profound psychosocial outcomes including depression, anxiety, severe isolation, and tragically suicide” (“American Academy of Pediatrics”). Cyber bullying impacts society in a negative way because it is harming young teenagers’ minds. Bullies, torment, threat, harass, and even embarrass their victims by using different forms of social media. Using social media can also decrease privacy for an individual. People often give out their personal information not knowing who can see it. To average internet users, “A false sense of security may leave social networking site users vulnerable to security attacks such as hacking, leaking sensitive information, and sending viruses” (“ProCon”). Furthermore, Social media can also lead to brain disorders and can cause people to have a hard time interacting with people face to face. “Social networking entices people to spend more time online and less time talking to a person face to face.” (“ProCon”)
Social media has gained immense popularity, following increased access to the internet and technology devices including smart phones. Social media is used to denote platforms in which people build and share social connections; thus enhancing information sharing and interaction. Major examples include Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest and Instagram. Through social media, people can connect, interact and exchange information such as pictures, videos and other digital media by registering as users in these platforms and updating information affecting their lives on their profiles. When social media applications came into existence, these were mostly used for interacting and sharing with friends, relations and new friends acquired through these platforms. Social media has however been constantly abused, as people turn it into a ground to vent, lie, insult, bully or threaten others. The social networks no longer serve their intended purpose in the society and users have taken advantage of the free space to say whatever they want with no regard to how it affects others. People have used such domains to brandish their selfish acts and gains.
Social media. We have all heard of it. We have all raved about it at some point in our lives. There is no doubt; it plays an imperative part of people’s lives today – users are reliant on social media. It is great that Mark Zuckerberg reminds us to say, “Happy Birthday” to our friends. Yet, we have all seen the dangers it can cause. From identity fraud to cyberbullying - we become exposed to the dangers of the internet. Not only is it hackers and frauds that cause destruction, but social networking posts. Every day, you scroll through Facebook, or Instagram - liking, sharing and commenting on posts. What people don’t see is how words on a ‘status’ or ‘tweet’ can hurt someone. They can’t see that a person’s feelings behind the screens on a computer have been destroyed, because they can’t see what they don’t want to see.