A role for social media? A community-based response to guns, gangs, and violence online.

Social media represents a relatively novel environment for prevention efforts targeting youth gun and gang violence, and associated trauma. The aim of this study is, therefore, to present findings from a novel intervention designed to complement existing, community-based violence prevention efforts. In doing so, we focus on the role of adult empathy in the relationships between youth and the adult credible messengers (CMs) who deliver the program. Guided by the purpose of complementarity, our mixed methods data analyses combine insights gained from CM's quantitative reports of 145 instances of risky online behavior with qualitative analyses of three focus groups addressing their experiences. Results underscore the complexities of social media as a context with the potential to simultaneously contribute to, and serve to prevent, trauma. Results also indicate that empathic concern and perspective taking were important in informing the type of intervention tactics employed by CMs. Relatedly, CM's perspective taking mattered not only in their responses to risky and/or trauma-related content, but also in their identification of some relevant social media posts.

Examining Self-Reported Physical Contact With Minors Among Pedophile Support Forum Users.

Minimal research has considered the extent to which pedophile social support forum users disclose physical relationships with minors in the course of their posts. As these forums cater to those who express sexual interests in minors, the users may be at higher risk for contact offenses and require unique treatment and supervision. To address this gap in the literature, this study utilized a quantitative analysis of the posts from 806 users from four separate pedophile support forums to identify the correlates of self-disclosed contact with minors. The findings demonstrated that although most users do not disclose physical contact, those who do share several common traits, specifically fantasies of minors, mentions of relationships with minors, and a sexually suggestive username. The implications of this analysis for our understanding of the role of online forums and potential clinical treatment are discussed in detail.

Leveraging youths' digital literacies: The E-Responder social media violence interruption model and pilot evaluation.

Increasingly, altercations and arrests have been traced to youths' actions on social media. The present paper describes E-Responder, an intervention developed through a university-community partnership to address three key goals for youth at risk of legal system involvement and firearms-related violence: (1) preventing the escalation of online provocation to in-person violence; (2) supporting youth in enhancing social media self-efficacy; and (3) supporting Violence Prevention Professionals (VPPs), already working with youth, in using social media as a tool to interrupt potential violence and leverage youth's digital citizenship. This paper describes the E-Responder mixed-methods pilot; findings suggest that E-Responder sites identified over 100 instances of risky online behavior (22% high risk) and effectively addressed 97% of these instances. Youth participants reported significantly greater social media self-efficacy over time and compared to matched-comparison youth. Focus group (n = 12) results corroborate these patterns. Implications for future intervention, research, and policy are discussed.