Snitches, Trolls, and Social Norms: Unpacking Perceptions of Social Media Use for Crime Prevention

In this paper, we describe how people perceive the use of social media to support crime prevention in their communities. Based on survey and interview data from residents in high- and low-crime neighborhoods in Chicago, we found that African Americans, people from high-crime neighborhoods, and people with low levels of trust in local police are less likely to view social media as an appropriate tool to support citizens or the police in local crime prevention efforts. Residents concerns include information getting into the wrong hands, trolls, and being perceived as a snitch. Despite concerns with usage, citizens also viewed social media as a tool that can supplement in-person crime prevention efforts and facilitate relationship-building and information sharing. We discuss the complexities of hyper-local usage of social media to combat crime by describing the social and historical contexts in which these tools exist.