Violent Online Research Articles

Analysing the importance of drill artists’ offline environment in the creation of violent online identities

ABSTRACT Drill, a sub-genre of hip-hop that emerged out of Chicago but is now a mainstay of United Kingdom youth street culture, often includes violent lyrics designed to antagonise rivals. This article draws on a longitudinal study with several drill artists to expand the academic understanding of this culture. Within this study, young people’s violent online personas are a response to inhabiting a social space that developed due to a nexus of factors, including social deprivation, a lack of informal guardianship and the rules of the online attention economy. This digital dynamic sees artists competing for viewers’ limited attention by producing exaggerated violent depictions to show cultural competence and embodied street capital as they vie for attention in an antagonistic continuum with other groups. As young people experience social spaces, not governed by the rules of the street, they often realise that their violent online persona’s utility is limited, leading to a rebranding of their digital self. The study concludes that young people’s involvement in online violence is usually a temporary response to the offline social spaces they inhabit. Attempts to address such activities should focus on young people’s offline and online experiences.

Why Bystanders (Don’t) Post About Violence: Contextualizing Individual Versus Socialized Rationales of Observers’ Publication Intentions

Pictures of violence form an important element in today’s news media and political online discussions. Many of these images are uploaded by bystanders, that is, people without clear links to the events. In this article, we investigate publication intentions of bystanders when confronted with disparate violent scenes. Using a two-step approach of online survey and follow-up interviews, we illustrate how bystanders rationalize the possible publication of violence online along individualized and socialized rationales. The resulting framework offers a systematic view on conditions that shape publication and non-publication intentions. Overall, our study offers important contributions by linking individual and collective perspectives on online content production as well as a re-appreciation of bystanders that includes the possibility of non-publication as moral choice.

“Embarrassing and disgraceful”: technology-facilitated sexual violence and victim’s healing process

This study aims to reveal the communication experience of victims of online gender-based violence and the healing process from the trauma they experienced. The main research questions are how victims experience violence online, what motives encourage perpetrators to commit violence from the victim’s perspective, the meaning of the communication experience, and the victim’s process of healing the traumatic experience. In this qualitative study, phenomenological methods and symbolic interaction theory were employed. The research subjects are women victims of online gender-based violence cases. Informants were selected through a purposive sampling technique. The results showed that most cases of threats of spreading intimate photos or videos were experienced by victims when they asked for a breakup or did not follow the wishes of the perpetrator. Victims of violence in the online realm are also vulnerable to multiple layers of violence. The video is used as a tool for the perpetrator so that the victim does not refuse to have sex with the perpetrator. The impact experienced by the victim is psychological loss, social isolation, and limited mobility. The three motives behind the above cases are relational, sextortion or extortion, and unknown motives. The meanings obtained from the communication experience of victims are shame, disgrace, loss of identity, feeling tarnished, and having mistrust of the opposite sex. The victims used various ways to heal themselves from the trauma, namely getting closer to God, telling stories to friends, and consulting psychologists.

“You belong in the kitchen”: social media, virtual manhood acts, and women strength sport athletes’ experiences of gender-based violence online

ABSTRACT The virtual world has transformed sport and leisure spaces, including how we communicate and interact with others globally. Despite the positives of social media, it is also a space which may facilitate hate, abuse, discrimination, and gender-based violence. In this study, women strength sport athletes’ experiences and perceptions of gender-based violence through the enactment of Virtual Manhood Acts (VMAs) are explored, using interviews with thirteen competitive women athletes. Findings reveal that VMAs are used to regulate gender norms and ideologies, promote misogyny, and endorse a hierarchical gender order. In addition, women experience appearance-related commentary and gender questioning, which arguably reduces their worth to their appearance, with expectations of conformity to the “male gaze.” Finally, VMAs are targeted towards women through accusations of steroid use and through criticism of form and technique, reinforcing strength sports as a male-domain and marginalising women’s achievements. While previous research has analysed the existence of VMAs online, in this study the importance of considering women’s perceptions of VMAs, and the wider impact they can have, is further considered.

Doki Doki Literature Club

Initially released in 2017, Doki Doki Literature Club (DDLC) intentionally deceives, pretending to be an unremarkable Bishōjo or Japanese dating simulator, but as players progress through the story, they encounter a series of violent glitches that reveal the game’s true identity as a surreal horror experience taking place within the player’s computer. To stop the violence, players must delete certain files that the game installs on their computer during installation. In this article, I argue that DDLC makes the player’s relationship with technology weird and highlights the casual cruelty with which many treat others online. Uniting player testimonies with aesthetic analysis, I explore the ways that the game offers a complicated (and incomplete) playable critique of sexualized and racialized violence online.

A typology of adolescent online gamers. Part I

Abstract Introduction: For several years now, there has been an increased interest on the part of psychiatrists, pediatricians, psychologists, specialists in education, and sociologists in the issue of so-called behavioral addictions, which include Internet addiction and computer gaming addiction. The aim of this study was to draw a typology of Internet gamers. Material and methods: The examined group and method: The study involved 576 individuals aged 16 to 19 years. The participants were surveyed using an Inquiry Form and the Online Gaming Addiction Questionnaire designed by the present authors. Results: The participants of this study were divided into four types of online gamers: gamers who scored the highest on the KBUGI scales and items corresponding to the DSM-5 criteria for Internet Gaming Disorder (Type 1); gamers who mostly played violent online games in which the player kills his enemies, destroys things, breaks traffic rules, and experiences power and new sensations (Type 2); individuals who played mainly to eliminate the feeling of boredom, enhance their mood and experience pleasure, new sensations and rivalry (Type 3); and people who only played occasionally and were not at risk of Internet gaming addiction (Type 4). Conclusions: The four groups included gamers severely addicted to gaming; gamers who played violent games to satisfy their need for aggression (moderate Internet gaming addiction); gamers who played mainly to eliminate boredom and seek new stimuli (mild Internet gaming addiction); and non-addicted gamers.

Women's Perspectives on Harm and Justice after Online Harassment

Social media platforms aspire to create online experiences where users can participate safely and equitably. However, women around the world experience widespread online harassment, including insults, stalking, aggression, threats, and non-consensual sharing of sexual photos. This article describes women's perceptions of harm associated with online harassment and preferred platform responses to that harm. We conducted a survey in 14 geographic regions around the world (N = 3,993), focusing on regions whose perspectives have been insufficiently elevated in social media governance decisions (e.g. Mongolia, Cameroon). Results show that, on average, women perceive greater harm associated with online harassment than men, especially for non-consensual image sharing. Women also prefer most platform responses compared to men, especially removing content and banning users; however, women are less favorable towards payment as a response. Addressing global gender-based violence online requires understanding how women experience online harms and how they wish for it to be addressed. This is especially important given that the people who build and govern technology are not typically those who are most likely to experience online harms.

What If It Was You (#WIIWY) digital activism on TikTok to fight gender-based violence online and cyberbullying

FISIP 21 created #WIIWY activism in response to the increase in cases of online gender-based violence (KBGO) and cyberbullying during the COVID-19 pandemic. To be able to participate in activism, the public can upload content on the social media TikTok. The #WIIWY movement is gaining traction among the general public. This study explored the motivations of #WIIWY digital activism makers, obtained information about the dissemination of #WIIWY digital activism on TikTok, and the role of TikTok in the process of making digital activism media. This study uses a virtual ethnographic method to explain the cultural behavior of digital activism that is used by users on TikTok. The results of this study indicate that there are several individual motivations involved in #WIIWY activism, namely the suitability with feelings, want to spread awareness about cyberbullying and KBGO, voice the experiences as victims of crime on social media and create a safer and more positive social media environment. The spread of this activism is quite high but its virality is limited at the beginning and is not evenly distributed throughout Indonesia. This study concludes that TikTok plays a role in the media-making process of producing and disseminating #WIIWY activism.

Typology of Victimization against Women on Adolescent Girls in Three Contexts: Dating Offline, Dating Online, and Sexual Harassment Online.

Defining the typologies of adolescent girls in relation to different types of victimization against women could be very useful for prevention. Almost all the typologies previously elaborated on this topic define the typologies from situations of dating victimization. This study used cluster analysis to establish for the first time a typology of adolescent girl victimization against women that included dating violence offline, dating violence online, and sexual harassment online outside a relationship by means of a comparative analysis of behavior between those who had suffered this violence and the population at large. The participants were 3.532 Spanish teenage girls aged 14–18 with experience of relationships with boys. Three discrete, identifiable types were obtained: the first group (63.8%), non-victim girls; the second group (29.4%), victims of sexual harassment online outside a relationship but with a low incidence of dating victimization; the third group (6.8%), victims in the three contexts. The logistic regression analysis showed that risky sexual behavior online was the main risk condition for inclusion in the second and third groups (compared to the non-victim group), followed by low self-esteem (for the second group) and age (for both groups). Other variables that also contributed to predicting membership victim groups were health complaints, feminine gender role stress, justification of male dominance and violence, visiting risky websites, and problematic internet use. These results show the importance of including the prevention of such problems in order to eradicate violence against women in adolescence who have grown up with digital technologies.

Investigating the experience of viewing extreme real-world violence online: Naturalistic evidence from an online discussion forum

This study investigates the psychological impact of viewing user-generated content depicting extreme real-world violence. Eight threads were harvested from a publicly accessible online discussion forum in which people discussed their experiences of witnessing real-world torture, maiming or death online. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to systematically analyse these threads. The themes capture the contradictory ways in which people react to viewing extreme real-world violence online, with some finding it intensely distressing and others using it as a resource for psychological grounding or (perceived) strengthening. Based on this analysis, we highlight pathways that may lead to the cessation or continuation of viewing such content and argue that greater research on this seemingly common but under-studied experience is warranted.

Workplace violence among healthcare workers, a multicenter study in Italy

ObjectivesThe purpose of this study is to assess the prevalence and determinants of workplace violence and the sociodemographic risk factors associated. Study designThis was a multicenter cross-sectional study. MethodsThe study was performed using self-compiled Italian version of the World Health Organization's questionnaire on workplace violence online by filling in a Google form. The survey was opened from May 2018 to March 2020 and lasted 5–10 min. ResultsThe sample consists of 3659 healthcare workers, of which 2525 (69%) are females, 1446 (39.5%) are nurses, and 2029 (55.5%) are health workers from northern Italy. The most frequent age group of the sample is 50–54 years (16.7%). A total of 366 (10%) healthcare workers are victims of physical aggression at work in the last 12 months, of which 6.3% with a weapon. The risk of being a victim of physical aggression at work in the last 12 months is significantly associated with the following independent variables: male gender (odds ratio [OR] 1.72, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.36–2.17), work in southern Italy (OR 1.59, 95% CI: 1.10–2.28), and being a nurse (OR 2.56, 95% CI: 2.01–3.25). The risk of being a victim of physical aggression at work with a weapon in the last 12 months is significantly associated with work in southern Italy (OR 9.33, 95% CI: 3.83–22.73). A total of 1723 (47.1%) of healthcare workers declare to be a victim of verbal aggression at work in the last 12 months. The risk of being a victim of verbal aggression at work in the last 12 months is significantly associated with the following independent variables: work in northern Italy (adjusted OR [aOR] 1.54, 95% CI: 1.32–1.81), work in southern Italy (aOR 3.68, 95% CI: 2.90–4.68), and be more than 55 years old (aOR 0.73, 95% CI: 0.63–0.85). ConclusionsThe study underlines that the problem of verbal and physical aggression against healthcare workers is still central and is a further starting point for research. The prevalence of violence is difficult to assess because violent incidents are underreported or unreported. The results of the study suggest that increased awareness is needed to develop effective control strategies at the individual, hospital, and national levels to prevent aggression and improve the conditions of victims.

Content analysis of responses to The Line, an Australian primary prevention of violence against women campaign on Facebook.

Primary prevention of violence against women (PVAW) strategies and campaigns aim to address and challenge violence-supportive behaviour and normative social structures to intervene before violence happens. Towards this aim, from 2014 to 2019, The Line was a public Australian Commonwealth-supported PVAW campaign on social media that targeted young people. This study explores how young people discussed PVAW-related themes on the campaign's Facebook page. Social media scraping tools were used to collect 346941 comments on The Line's Facebook page from 2014 to 2017. In this study, 3663 comments included three high frequency, PVAW-related key terms, 'violence' (1430 comments), 'gender' (1602 comments) and 'consent' (631 comments). These were identified and were thematically coded. Young people's comments indicated high support for violence prevention but varied in how they understood gendered violence and factors that contribute to it, and instead, some argued that the campaign should not ignore men. Some young people who engaged with The Line on a long-term basis and spoke to its aims, proposed interpretations from their experiences, and challenged the campaign to progress. This study demonstrates that young people influence each other by adopting and disrupting PVAW knowledge in a publicly funded social media campaign. SO WHAT?: Public PVAW social media campaigns can encourage young people to discuss gendered violence online. However, successful campaigns need ongoing support to develop conversations with target populations that allow diverse audiences to build their knowledge.

Types of Male Adolescent Violence Against Women in Three Contexts: Dating Violence Offline, Dating Violence Online, and Sexual Harassment Online Outside a Relationship.

There has been little investigation of male adolescent violence against women as acknowledged by boys themselves, and even less on such violence in different contexts with comparative studies of behavior between those who perpetrate this violence and the population at large. This study used cluster analysis to establish a male adolescent typology based on boys’ self-reporting of violence against women in three contexts. The participants were 3,132 Spanish teenage boys aged 14–18 with experience of relationships with girls. Three discrete, identifiable types were obtained: the first group (69.8%), of non-violent boys; the second group (26%), more involved in sexual harassment online outside a relationship but with a low incidence of dating violence offline; the third group (4.2%), with abuse in the three contexts but less involved in sexual harassment online than the second group. The logistic regression analysis showed that justification of male dominance and violence was the main risk condition for inclusion in the second and third groups, followed by low self-esteem (for the third group) and risky sexual behaviors online (for the second and third groups). The findings based on these results are important for preventing male adolescent dating violence against women in the three male types detected.

Protection of Online Gender-Based Violence Victims: A Feminist Legal Analysis

The complexity of the digital era, especially throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, has led to increasing cases of gender-based violence online (GBVO). However, this issue has not yet received attention in the realm of Indonesian law, especially when it comes to protecting the rights of the victims. This paper aims to see how the current legal framework in Indonesia handles GBVO cases and whether it is sufficient to provide protection for victims. This paper also wants to show that the practice of GBVO is often more detrimental to women through the elaboration of several examples of cases that are widely discussed in Indonesian society. The correlation between the strong patriarchal culture; and the lack of understanding by the community and law enforcement officers on the concept of consent always corners women as victims of GBVO and applies it to the secondary victimization process. The research was conducted using a feminist legal method that focuses on the experience of women as victims to encourage the formulation of a legal umbrella and legal system with a more victim perspective.

Depression analysis of youth its relation with future suicidal ideation for forensic consideration of Delhi NCR region population

India has the greatest youth power in the entire world, this particular survey will show that the Indian youth are indulged in different activities such as drugs, violent online gaming, alcohol, work from home, etc., and hence their level of depression increases. This survey is based on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and the following data is being collected using online google from Delhi NCR Population India. Most youth aged between 17–29 years (both female and male) are surveyed and the gathered data is being examined to determine a correlation between suicidal ideation and depression in youth. Collected data was analyzed of 436 undergraduates who are from different areas of Delhi NCR and have different norms and are from different populations. There are college pressure and many jobless youths and work from home illustrate the amount of mental pressure, and the explanations for these circumstances could be associated with both suicide thought. The increase in depression level can be associated with suicidal ideology and a lower likelihood of suicide attempts. This research survey illustrates the proportion level of depressions in males & females.

Проблема сексуального насильства над дітьми в цифровому середовищі

Variouns means of communication, the Internet is an integral part of society in general and children in particular. There are no official statistics on the number of children on the Internet, but according to various studies, the most active Internet users are young people, especially adolescents. On the one hand, it is a means of increasing erudition and communication skills, and on the other – a situation of increased risk of confrontation with some threats to the virtual world: from fraud to drug trafficking and sexual violence online. At the same time, against the background of declining general morality in society, the variability of values in the sexual sphere and other negative trends exacerbate the problem of sexual assault on children, which requires urgent measures to prevent and combat them. With the rapid development of modern Internet technologies, humanity has not only faced the latest opportunities, but also faced new risks and threats. In particular, the spread of child pornography, sexting, grooming, etc. has become a problem common to most countries in the world, including Ukraine, which is one of the largest producers of child pornography in the world. The author emphasizes that such illegal content is evidence of violence against children and, at the same time, a sign of sexual deviation among consumers of this product, for whom Internet technology is a tool for accessing, storing, distributing, sharing and creating child pornography. It is emphasized that thanks to digital technologies, the Internet has made it much easier for criminals to establish contact with minors, who often behave carelessly and recklessly in virtual communication, in particular, easily agree to share personal information and even send candid photos to virtual “friends”. Thus, there is a need to raise children’s awareness of online risks by teaching safe behavior in the digital environment. The article emphasizes that Ukraine has a rather limited toolkit of legal means to combat sexual violence online and harmful communication in cyberspace. Therefore, improving the protection of children in the digital environment is a priority today.

A Geospatial Analysis of Disclosure of and Social Reactions to Sexual Victimization on Twitter Using #MeToo

Twitter has emerged as a space for survivors of sexual violence to share unwanted sexual experiences and for web users to provide support and feedback. Because Twitter data is often associated with latitude and longitude points, geospatial mapping of tweets that utilized the hashtag #MeToo to discuss experiences of sexual violence may be useful in understanding ways to best deliver resources to survivors who seek help online. Accordingly, the present study conducted an exploratory geographic information systems (GIS) “hotspot” (i.e., special cluster of tweet events) analysis to examine the feasibility of mapping tweets including the hashtag #MeToo with associated latitude and longitude data (N = 777) to target interventions and resource provision. Data indicated that tweets with the hashtag #MeToo were dispersed across the United States in a manner inconsistent with population density and that concentrated points emerged in other countries. Data suggest that certain geographic regions are more motivated to discuss sexual violence online and are perhaps in more dire need of violence-related resources. Future research should incorporate GIS analysis of larger Twitter datasets to target resource provision toward populations engaged in help-seeking online. GIS analysis of Twitter discourse surrounding gender-based violence may also be utilized by law enforcement, healthcare agencies, and academicians to develop targeted interventions.

Constructive Messages in Australian Domestic Violence Online News Coverage and Guidelines for Improved Coverage

ABSTRACT This article focusses on the Australian online news’ effectiveness to set the agenda for disseminating constructive messages. It explores obstacles reporters and editors encounter when covering a sensitive issue like domestic violence for the online news platform. By drawing on information from 2324 domestic violence articles in three most-accessed Australian online news sites, and interviews with 12 reporters and editors, this article details how these challenges are best overcome. Content analysis and interview results indicate reporters and editors have made efforts to increase constructive coverage, which continues to remain episodic and lacks meaningful context that helps tackle social factors leading to the abuse. Because much of the domestic violence reporting focusses on murders, reporters and editors are restricted by legal guidelines as to how much context and detail they can provide. Through eight specific guidelines, this study provides insights into how the obstacles can be overcome to improve the coverage. It suggests future research areas which could investigate how a more constructive reportage cognisant of victims’ suffering could be achieved.

‘He never hit me #WhyIStayed’: countering the U.S. domestic violence master narrative

ABSTRACT In September 2014, TMZ leaked a video of NFL Baltimore Ravens running back, Ray Rice, assaulting his fiancé, Janay Palmer. By the time the video was released, Janay had married Rice, drawing heavy criticism from the media. To combat the victim-blaming discourse aimed at Janay, Bev Gooden, a domestic violence survivor, created the viral #WhyIStayed. Thousands of users tweeted their experiences of domestic violence, discussing reasons for both staying in and leaving abusive relationships. This study examines the complexities of domestic violence in #WhyIStayed/#WhyILeft victim/survivor narratives. By combining narrative theory with a semantic network analysis of 19,345 #WhyIStayed/#WhyILeft tweets, we argue that these posts operate as counter-narratives to the U.S. domestic violence master narrative. Three themes emerged from the semantic network analysis: lack of awareness of abuse, the prevalence of emotional abuse, and double-binds that constrain choices. We discuss their implications for domestic violence activism and online activism generally.

Zoom-ing in on White Supremacy

Zoom-ing in on White Supremacy