TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2017//
TI  - Tweets, gangs, and guns: a snapshot of gang communications in Detroit
JO  - Violence and victims
A1  - Patton, Desmond
A1  - Patel, Sadiq
A1  - Sung Hong, Jun
A1  - Ranney, Megan
A1  - Crandall, Marie
A1  - Dungy, Lyle
SP  - 919
EP  - 934
VL  - 32
IS  - 5
N2  - The aim of this study is to determine the frequency of violent and criminal Twitter communications among gang-affiliated individuals in Detroit, Michigan. We analyzed 8.5 million Detroit gang members' tweets from January 2013 to March 2014 to assess whether they contained Internet banging-related keywords. We found that 4.7% of gangaffiliated user tweets consisted of terms related to violence and crime. Violence and crime-related communications fell into 4 main categories: (a) beefing (267,221 tweets), (b) grief (79,971 tweets), (c) guns (3,551 tweets), and (d) substance use and distribution (47,638 tweets). Patterns in violent and criminal communication that may be helpful in predicting future gang activities were identified, which has implications for violence prevention research, practice, and policy.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0886-6708
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1891/0886-6708.VV-D-16-00040
ID  - ref1
ER  -