35 research outputs found
Black and Blue: Deconstructing #DefundThePolice
No full textThe demand to address police racism by “defunding the police” echoed on- and offline in the summer of 2020 following the police murder of George Floyd, but it was not always clear what defunding the police entails. Through an analysis of 300 stories posted on the CBC News and CTV News websites between May 25, 2020, and September 30, 2021, this study addresses the construction of the Defund the Police campaign in Canadian online news media and how reflective this construction is of the campaign’s official objectives. Black Lives Matter organized the Defund the Police campaign as a demand for: (1) alternatives to police services; (2) decriminalization; and (3) disarmament, demilitarization and technology. Yet, news media prioritized calls for alternatives to police services, while providing less attention to disarmament, demilitarization and technology demands, and largely excluding decriminalization from defunding conversations altogether. More generally, the news media constructed the Defund the Police campaign around three fluid interpretations: defunding as a call to remove and abolish police, as a call for budgetary reallocation and alternatives to police, and as a call for police reform and accountability. Despite a variety of perspectives, support for a reallocation and alternatives interpretation of defunding was most prominent within the news media, suggesting that police budget cuts in favour of community supports will be the focus of defunding policy in the future
Streaks, Stories, and Social Capital: A Bourdieusian Approach to Teenagers' Use of Snapchat
No full textSnapchat¬ is one of the most popular social media platforms used by young people. On Snapchat, users can directly message or broadcast time-limited pictures and videos to each other. To date, research into teenagers using social media has included platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, but there is little research regarding how teenagers use Snapchat. Drawing upon a Bourdieusian framework to interpret Snapchat as a field in which young people struggle for social capital, this study explores Snapchat use among high school students in Southern Ontario through semi-structured interviews. The findings suggest teenagers use Snapchat to enhance their social capital through prosocial and antisocial behaviours, respectively. Based on these findings, I encourage 1) future researchers to consider peer group dynamics, both online and offline, when conceptualizing young people’s social capital, and 2) parents and teachers to promote prosocial behaviour on social media as opposed to limiting young people’s access to social media
Identity Theft Victims’ Understandings of Incidents and their Reporting Decisions
No full textIdentity theft, the theft and misuse of another person’s identity information, has increased in North America over the past decade, with almost 10 percent of adults victimized annually. Although few victims pay out of pocket for identity theft incidents, other consequences can include lost time and emotional, relational, and physical tolls. Despite these costs to millions of North Americans annually, most incidents are reported to financial institutions rather than police. In Canada, no representative identity theft victim surveys have been administered since its criminalization, and little is known about the scope and nature of identity theft. Two recent studies have examined identity theft reporting in the United States, but few studies have explored victims’ experiences qualitatively. This study employs a symbolic interactionist perspective to better understand victims’ perceptions of identity theft and their reporting decisions. Drawing from interviews with 20 identity theft victims in Ontario and quantitative analysis of the United States’ 2016 National Crime Victimization Survey – Identity Theft Supplement, it finds that victims’ understandings of the incidents they faced are processes and that identity theft is conceptualized in multiple ways: including as crimes, routine inconveniences, institutional failures, and relational issues. Many participants resisted identification as a victim for various reasons, including that they felt they experienced little harm or that they held some blame for the incident. In terms of reporting, quantitative analyses revealed that more serious incidents were reported to law enforcement and that the reporting of victims who paid out of pocket was impacted differently by other measures of seriousness compared to those who recuperated losses. Interview participants often took the actions they saw as practical based on their understanding of the incident, while their reporting decisions were also influenced by emotional reactions and advice. Finally, participants’ reporting experiences varied significantly: while some had their needs met promptly, others had to call institutions repeatedly or were referred elsewhere. This study makes important contributions to the existing research on identity theft victimization, and future research should continue examining this understudied area since the results suggest that many victims may fall through the cracks of victim support
The Ecologies of Becoming "Me": School Climate, Bullying, and Resilience Outcomes Amongst 2SLGBTQIA+ Secondary School Students in Ontario
No full textThis thesis provides insight into the complex personal negotiations 2SLGBTQIA+ secondary school students undergo when navigating their identities in potentially queerphobic spaces, answering the following two research questions: 1) What roles do social culture and school climate play in the manifestation of queerphobic bullying? 2) How do personal connections to one’s queer identity impact resilience outcomes following queerphobic secondary school bullying? Analysis of data from eight semi-structured interviews found school culture and social climate play a demonstrable role in the occurrence and severity of queerphobic bullying, with gender essentialism being determined to be an exacerbator, and significant in decisions surrounding visibility. Connections to queerness are positively associated with resilience outcomes, with participants who expressed deep connections to their queer identities displaying more positive resilience outcomes than those disconnected. This highlights the importance of affirmation in the development of queer identities, underscoring a path for positive change within Ontario secondary schools
Collaborative responses to cyberbullying: preventing and responding to cyberbullying through nodes and clusters
No full text‘All it takes is one TV show to ruin it’: a police perspective on police-media relations in the era of expanding prime time crime markets
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“Every Time I Try to Get Out, I Get Pushed Back”: The Role of Violent Victimization in Women’s Experience of Multiple Episodes of Homelessness
No full text Research shows that, for most people, homelessness is not a chronic state that one enters and never leaves. Instead, homelessness tends to be dynamic, with individuals cycling in and out of multiple periods of homelessness throughout their lives. Despite this recognition, and a wealth of research on the causes of homelessness, generally, there is a lack of scholarship on the pathways to multiple episodes of homelessness. In particular, the relationship between violent victimization and women’s likelihood of being homeless multiple times is largely unexplored. Drawing on data collected from 269 structured interviews conducted with women using the services of homeless shelters and/or transitional housing in three U.S. and two U.K. cities, we use multivariate logistic regression to assess whether violent victimization increases women’s likelihood of experiencing multiple episodes of homelessness. Our results show that adult victims of stranger-perpetrated physical assault are significantly more likely to be homeless on multiple occasions. In addition, those who experience multiple forms of victimization (e.g., physical and sexual abuse) in childhood, adulthood, and/or across the life course are significantly more likely to experience multiple episodes of homelessness. Given recent efforts to eradicate homelessness, our results suggest specific vulnerable groups that may benefit from targeted social and policy interventions. </jats:p
Huey, Laura and Broll, Ryan. Becoming Strong: Impoverished Women and the Struggles to Overcome Violence.
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