I don’t like guns but having one in Winnipeg right now would feel safer

Crime, liquor theft, and online fantasies of punishment and control

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7174141
AutoresKatharina Maier (0000-0002-0678-2854, University of Winnipeg, autor de correspondencia), Steven Kohm (0000-0002-4650-1180, University of Winnipeg)
Año2024
Volumen21
Número3
Páginas373-393
Fecha de publicación2024-11-10
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCrime Media Culture An International Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1741-6590 • E-ISSN: 1741-6604
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/17416590241297245
OpenAlexW4404217797
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas64

In 2018–2019, there was a surge of local news media coverage in Winnipeg, Canada about what news media described as “brazen” liquor store theft. Online discussion and social media platforms provided segments of the public with opportunities to assert claims about the causes and consequences of this putative crime wave as well as potential solutions within and outside the penal system. These online fora allowed internet communities to imagine new methods of crime control and vocalize a range of emotions about crime and punishment. Employing a thematic analysis of reader comments across several online and social media platforms, we argue that these online discussions about liquor theft provide an empirical case study of the new digital media logic that facilitates highly volatile and short-lived moral panics or “firestorms.” We draw upon cultural criminology scholarship to highlight the centrality of emotion in online discussions on liquor theft. By making emotion central, online discussions provide a clearer glimpse into the displaced rage that is thought to set moral panics in motion. We argue that online platforms constitute an important medium to understand how people imagine and envision punishment and control, as well as how they construct/conceive of offenders and the purported problems underlying crime

Business · Computer security · Control (management · Criminology · Gun control · Internet privacy · Political science · Punishment (psychology · SAFER · Computer Science · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Crime, Deviance, and Social Control · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology · Stalking, Cyberstalking, and Harassment · Artificial Intelligence