Social Media and the Variable Impact of Violence Reduction Interventions: Re-Examining Focused Deterrence in Philadelphia
1
Department of Criminology and Justice Studies, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
2
School of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, MN 55445, USA
3
Department of Criminal Justice, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editors: Matthew Valasik and Shannon E. Reid
Soc. Sci. 2021, 10(5), 147; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10050147
Received: 1 February 2021
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Revised: 12 April 2021
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Accepted: 16 April 2021
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Published: 22 April 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Gang-Related Violence in the 21st Century)
Focused deterrence is a gang violence reduction strategy that relies on a unique mix of strong enforcement messages from law enforcement and judicial officials coupled with the promise of additional services. At the heart of the intervention is a coordinated effort to communicate the costs and consequences of gun violence to identified gang members during face-to-face meetings and additional community messaging. In Philadelphia, focused deterrence was implemented between 2013 and 2016, and although an impact evaluation showed a significant decrease in shootings in targeted areas relative to matched comparison neighborhoods, the effect on targeted gangs was not universal, with some exhibiting no change or an increase in gun-related activity. Here, we employ data on group-level social media usage and content to examine the correlations with gun violence. We find that several factors, including the nature of social media activity by the gang (e.g., extent of activity and who is engaging), are associated with increases in the average rate of gang-attributable shootings during the evaluation period, while content-specific variables (e.g., direct threats towards rivals and law enforcement) were not associated with increases in shootings. Implications for violence reduction policy, including the implementation of focused deterrence, are discussed.
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Keywords:
gangs; violence; shootings; social media; focused deterrence; intervention
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MDPI and ACS Style
Hyatt, J.M.; Densley, J.A.; Roman, C.G. Social Media and the Variable Impact of Violence Reduction Interventions: Re-Examining Focused Deterrence in Philadelphia. Soc. Sci. 2021, 10, 147. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10050147
AMA Style
Hyatt JM, Densley JA, Roman CG. Social Media and the Variable Impact of Violence Reduction Interventions: Re-Examining Focused Deterrence in Philadelphia. Social Sciences. 2021; 10(5):147. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10050147
Chicago/Turabian StyleHyatt, Jordan M., James A. Densley, and Caterina G. Roman. 2021. "Social Media and the Variable Impact of Violence Reduction Interventions: Re-Examining Focused Deterrence in Philadelphia" Social Sciences 10, no. 5: 147. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci10050147
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