Alessandro Moretti
Biographic Data
| ID | 3820935 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alessandro Moretti |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alessandro |
| FAMILY NAME | Moretti |
| SIGNATURE | MORETTI A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Copenhagen |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8412-6617 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 8 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 6 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 8 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
“That is Just Fucked Up, I Think I’ll Be Leaving Now”
The mainstreaming of dark memes — memes that weaponize human suffering for entertainment — signals a troubling shift in how society responds to crime and tragedy online. Examining dark memes on Facebook, we draw on cultural criminology to analyze their coded visual and linguistic strategies for evading moderation. Our data reveal a paradox: rather than relying on anonymity, users engage with hateful content under real identities using deliberatel…
Neutralization without Drift
While some of the hate that is posted on social media aligns with extremist ideologies, the sharing of hateful memes often defies rational explanation, prompting new inquiries into online deviant behaviour. Traditional neutralization theory assumes a temporary suspension of moral values, but sharers of hateful memes may not always perceive their actions as wrongful. When transgression is unacknowledged, there is no moral drift to justify. These f…
Human trafficking, sexual exploitation and digital technologies
This is the introduction to the special issue on ‘human trafficking, sexual exploitation and digital technologies’. This special issue contributes to the knowledge base by bringing together four articles that focus on the use of online platforms by human traffickers for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation. In doing so, this special issue explores the affordances of online platforms to human traffickers, the challenges faced by law enfo…
Identifying sex trafficking in Adult Services Websites
Intrusiveness and the Public-private Divide in Netnography
The nature of online social behaviour is largely changing, from communications taking place on open platforms to interactions occurring in hidden, group-based spaces or closed fora. Boccia Artieri (2017) has called this the new geography of unsearchable small conversations. This transformation challenges our current understanding and application of research ethics in qualitative digital sociology because, on one hand, we can no longer lean upon t…
Rise and Rise of Illegal Ticket Touting
Policing Sex Trafficking in the ‘Virtual Red-Light District’
Working alongside a police force in the United Kingdom, the study briefly presented in this note, sought to create an analytical tool (the Sexual Trafficking Identification Matrix—STIM) with which policing actors could distinguish between Adult Services Website (ASW) profiles posted by independent sex workers and profiles created by traffickers. Distinguishing between these will potentially allow law enforcement agencies to prioritise their inves…
Navigating the grey areas of law and ethics in ethnography
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to argue that the use of legally and ethically dubious methods in ethnography can sometimes be justified in the pursuit of new knowledge. The paper offers reflections on the risks that participatory methods of enquiry can bring upon both researcher and research participants, particularly in terms of the physical and reputational risks that researchers must face when adopting ethnographic methods in unwelcoming…
Intrusiveness and the Public-private Divide in Netnography
The nature of online social behaviour is largely changing, from communications taking place on open platforms to interactions occurring in hidden, group-based spaces or closed fora. Boccia Artieri (2017) has called this the new geography of unsearchable small conversations. This transformation challenges our current understanding and application of research ethics in qualitative digital sociology because, on one hand, we can no longer lean upon t…
Navigating the grey areas of law and ethics in ethnography
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to argue that the use of legally and ethically dubious methods in ethnography can sometimes be justified in the pursuit of new knowledge. The paper offers reflections on the risks that participatory methods of enquiry can bring upon both researcher and research participants, particularly in terms of the physical and reputational risks that researchers must face when adopting ethnographic methods in unwelcoming…
Navigating the grey areas of law and ethics in ethnography
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to argue that the use of legally and ethically dubious methods in ethnography can sometimes be justified in the pursuit of new knowledge. The paper offers reflections on the risks that participatory methods of enquiry can bring upon both researcher and research participants, particularly in terms of the physical and reputational risks that researchers must face when adopting ethnographic methods in unwelcoming…
Policing Sex Trafficking in the ‘Virtual Red-Light District’
Working alongside a police force in the United Kingdom, the study briefly presented in this note, sought to create an analytical tool (the Sexual Trafficking Identification Matrix—STIM) with which policing actors could distinguish between Adult Services Website (ASW) profiles posted by independent sex workers and profiles created by traffickers. Distinguishing between these will potentially allow law enforcement agencies to prioritise their inves…
Rise and Rise of Illegal Ticket Touting
Human trafficking, sexual exploitation and digital technologies
This is the introduction to the special issue on ‘human trafficking, sexual exploitation and digital technologies’. This special issue contributes to the knowledge base by bringing together four articles that focus on the use of online platforms by human traffickers for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation. In doing so, this special issue explores the affordances of online platforms to human traffickers, the challenges faced by law enfo…
Identifying sex trafficking in Adult Services Websites
Intrusiveness and the Public-private Divide in Netnography
The nature of online social behaviour is largely changing, from communications taking place on open platforms to interactions occurring in hidden, group-based spaces or closed fora. Boccia Artieri (2017) has called this the new geography of unsearchable small conversations. This transformation challenges our current understanding and application of research ethics in qualitative digital sociology because, on one hand, we can no longer lean upon t…
“That is Just Fucked Up, I Think I’ll Be Leaving Now”
The mainstreaming of dark memes — memes that weaponize human suffering for entertainment — signals a troubling shift in how society responds to crime and tragedy online. Examining dark memes on Facebook, we draw on cultural criminology to analyze their coded visual and linguistic strategies for evading moderation. Our data reveal a paradox: rather than relying on anonymity, users engage with hateful content under real identities using deliberatel…
Neutralization without Drift
While some of the hate that is posted on social media aligns with extremist ideologies, the sharing of hateful memes often defies rational explanation, prompting new inquiries into online deviant behaviour. Traditional neutralization theory assumes a temporary suspension of moral values, but sharers of hateful memes may not always perceive their actions as wrongful. When transgression is unacknowledged, there is no moral drift to justify. These f…
Computer Science (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Criminology (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Public relations (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection (3 works) · Human trafficking (3 works) · Internet privacy (3 works) · Law (3 works)