I Pray That We Will Find a Way to Carry on This Dream

How a Law Enforcement Crackdown United an Online Community

Bibliographic Data

ID2370532
AuthorsI Ladegaard (0000-0001-9480-551X, Monash University, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume45
Issue4-5
Pages631-646
Publication date2019-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCritical Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0896-9205 • E-ISSN: 1569-1632
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0896920517735670
OpenAlexW2770204202
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited57

Durkheim claimed that punishment of crime generates social cohesion as 'honorable' people are united in emotional, passionate condemnation of those who transgress society's moral boundaries. This study examines reactions to punishment in the punished group. Specifically, it examines how members of an online community responded when law enforcement shut down their websites. Drawing on data from three discussion forums, the author argues that the crackdown produced solidarity and enhanced a particular moral worldview that strengthened the community and enabled it to survive by migrating en masse to new websites

Criminology · Dream · Enforcement · Law enforcement · Moral standards · Political science · Shut down · Social control · Sociology · Solidarity · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Cybercrime and Law Enforcement Studies · Engineering · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology