Social Media & Crime
Most Americans’ knowledge and opinions of crime and justice are based on what they see on television and read in the newspapers (Warr, 2000). Social media, however, is increasingly becoming an important way that people both engage with and learn about crime.
Historically there’s always been crimes committed with an audience in mind, but it’s been a low-level background noise in the general crime picture,” said Surette, citing pre-internet cases of self-immolation.
What’s new is the access people have to tools, via the smartphone, that allows for the creation, publication, and distribution of content at the touch of a button – through photos, tweets, status updates, videos and now live streaming. Facebook isn’t the only app that allows smartphone users to broadcast in real-time, but it’s the only one available to an audience of 1.79 billion users.
The allure of attention from online peers, reinforced by immediate feedback in the form of shares, likes and other “engagement” indicators, can be intoxicating.
What Does the Research Say?
Sveinung Sandberg, who has been studying why people film their crimes in his native Norway, agrees. “There’s a snapshot culture. If we come across something extraordinary it doesn’t count unless we’ve filmed it or taken a picture. It becomes an instinct,” he said. “So then when you commit a violent crime or a rape the same instinct might strike you. You just grab for the phone and film it without thinking about the consequences.”
Celebrity culture also plays a role, said Surette. “It’s better to be famous for being bad than to be unknown. Criminality has become part of our infotainment world,” he said.
Research studies have also shown that media present a distorted and exaggerated view of the extent and seriousness of crime; moreover, they tend to portray racial minorities as responsible for the majority of crime (Surette, 1998; Dorfman & Schiraldi, 2001).
Discussion Questions
Have you ever committed a crime and documented it on social media?
Have you ever watched a crime be committed (during or after the fact) on social media?
In America, social media is a main source of the mainstream news, attention, and for entertainment. According to the text, when a crime occurs it usually for an audience or some form of power or attention. As we talked about in class that social media has an effect on crime. Mass shootings are seen regularly now and are being shown all over social media. People want their crimes to be shown to get some type of recognition. People don’t think about the consequences of their crime committed because they are too busy worrying about if they are going to be noticed by the world. People still do crimes without wanting recognition but there are many occasions where attention is the main goal. For this generation technology is a main source of knowledge, attention and the way a person should look or at like. This is a good thing to a certain extent. Once people start abusing and using social media to promote wrong doings then that would be the downfall of it.
I personally have never committed a crime that was documented and posted on social media. Sure, I’ve went over the speed limit and forgot to put my seat belt on but I’ve never had a friend film it to put on social media. I have seen crime on social media multiple times. Every once in awhile a video goes viral on twitter of someone abusing an animal which is terrible but usually social media brings attention to this matter and it is dealt with by the law. Social media can be powerful in this aspect though I do not know why anyone would abuse an animal let alone film it and post it online. I see a lot of blatantly racist people on social media as well as people who say the n word and do black face. Unfortunately things like this aren’t taken as seriously as animal abuse and there are often no consequences for these people.
In our modern day society there has been an increase in the number of people who have published virally criminal acts or intentions. This is due to the simplicity of creating, publishing and distributing content through the touch of a button. Although I have never published criminal acts on media sites, I have seen past friends, colleagues, and family do so. The acts that they posted were not felony acts but rather more associated with misdemeanors such as underage drinking or taking illegal substances that the impair functioning. Many people do not think twice before posting due to misconception that they will not get in trouble and the attention they may get from their peers. They are unaware that their posts may be seen by those that were not intended to see. Ultimately social media has been blamed for the public’s interest in posting criminal acts. In our culture sometimes social media is used due to the quick accessibility and the instant speed that information can spread.
I surmise Online networking Furthermore wrongdoing may not be a great thing in light. Also, Online networking spreads wrongdoing without providing for individuals the protection they need. I have never conferred An wrongdoing. I am not a enormous fan about presenting features with respect to social Media, Also i Additionally don’t feel agreeable viewing other wrongdoing scenes on the web.
I have never committed a crime nor have I ever seen a crime committed. I have seen tv shows like law and order SVU. Guns today are not used for the true purpose, the are abused and used for the wrong reasons. Guns were made for protection, not for killing innocent people and robbing people.
Have you ever watched a crime be committed (during or after the fact) on social media?
I have watched many crimes be committed on YouTube. A simple search can show you a wide variety of crime, from robbery to murder. Most of what I see is from the perspective of police body cams. It is incredible the amount of people who either film crimes in progress, or film themselves doing a crime. Pulling out your phone when something interesting happens has become second nature to many people, myself included. This trend of recording crime has proven to be useful to investigators, as it often gives them a lot of solid evidence to work with. The morbid side of things is shown when the criminal themselves films the crime they are committing. A man filmed himself driving up and murdering an elderly man on Facebook live, and it was a horrible thing to see. However, it gained a ton of attention. I think that the large amounts of crimes shown on TV and social media have desensitized the public, to where they no longer react as strongly to violent crimes. I feel that many of the violent crimes today, such as the school shootings, are much more quickly forgot by the public than they were in the past. It could also be that because they have sadly become more frequent, they also do not have as large of an impact on the masses. I think that these people commit high profile shootings because they know that they will receive massive amounts of attention from the media, especially if they are filmed in the act.
I have never committed a crime. I am not a big fan of posting videos on Social Media, and I also don’t feel comfortable watching other crime scenes on the Internet. The worst graphic video I saw involved a woman that had been beheaded on a street of one of the counties in Middle East. It was shocking and hurtful. That video was viewed all across the world. In my opinion, videos should have been banned immediately. The opposite argument consists of it exposing brutality of law and justice in some counties, and the world should be aware of the injustice against women by male dominate countries. The purpose of the video might be to identify the issue and possibly force the current government to make justice system more modernized.
I think social media and crime is a really interesting topic, because just like it was mentioned in the reading many celebrities are famous for crimes they committed that are plastered all over all social media. Also, I think it was about a year and a half ago I remember seeing the stories about a guy who used facebook live to record himself live killing a random older gentleman for no reason. As awful as it was, that video was shared all over facebook within days and everyone seemed to have their own opinions and stories about it. I think social media and crime is not a good thing because it is hard to believe what is true and what is fake. Also, social media spreads crime without giving people the privacy they have a right to have and allows people to jump to conclusions without hearing all sides of the story.
I have never committed a crime and documented it on social media, and I feel should not be publicized as it only creates more people to do the same thing. That is why certain movies or TV shows promote copycats in creating the same type of crime. It give them that ability to do something without thinking of the consequences. I have seen a crime being committed on social media before and when you’re watching something like this, it tends to put things in its perspective of right from wrong. Sometimes we have to believe that there is some form of truth and hope that we can have a better understanding as to why people feel shooting a gun is necessary. Sometimes I feel we have lost sight of what the purpose of guns are for.
As the reading shown, social media’s presence is undisputed. If something good or bad happens that is even remotely interesting, you better believe it’ll find its way onto social media. Because of this constant exposure to both illegal and legal things on the internet, I think many of us become desensitized to the serious nature of many of these crimes. This explodes tenfold when a large tragedy hits society, such as mass murders. For the months following the episode, social media is flooded with written and visual pieces about the topic. This constant cycle almost gets in our way of making any real progress with serious tragedies because we are constantly exposed to, and constantly forgetting about them. Social media probably also increases the likelihood of similar events occuring. Potential perpetrators may be looking for infamy and the massive social media response feeds into their goals. We can’t necessarily blame social media, rather ourselves. We need to hold meaningful conversations regarding such events when one occurs, but need to be careful to not feed into the infamy the perpetrator may be aspiring for.