Does social media make gang violence worse?
Friday 11 October 2013 @ 8.51 a.m. | Crime | Legal Research
According to a new article from Wired, the answer is sometimes yes. While gang violence has always been a major problem in the United States, social media is emerging as a new weapon to escalate gang wars.
In the city of Chicago, 500 people were killed last year, with much of the violence related to gang activity. But in contrast to the popular image of gangs as secretive entities, a new trend is emerging. Gang members, it is reported, now think nothing of making threats and declaring allegiances on Facebook and Twitter.
Gangs are also carving out spaces online, with message boards such as "TheHoodUp.com" and "StreetGangs.com" hosting forums for gang members to swap tips on criminal activity.
In some respects, this increasing transparency is helping police, who have their hands full monitoring gangs' online activity. Sometimes police are able to prevent crime even before it happens, with gang members often taking to social media to boast about what they're about to do.
“Any tweet might hold the identities of the next potential victim and perpetrator,” says NYPD deputy commissioner Paul Browne.
There seems to be no similar movements by bikie gangs in Australia to use social media to incite gang violence however posts like those that started the Cronulla riots in 2005 could be an indication of times to come for Australia, and a sign that the law should increasingly become more adept at handling abuse and use of social media.
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