European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research - Call for papers: "Addressing Antisocial Behaviour and Toxic Communication Online"
The journal welcomes submissions to a new special issue on "Addressing Antisocial Behaviour and Toxic Communication Online," which will be Guest-Edited by Anastasia Powell (this opens in a new tab) (RMIT University, Australia) and Anita Lavorgna (this opens in a new tab)(University of Southampton, UK).
Over the last two decades, researchers from diverse disciplines, and criminologists in particular, have investigated the potentially criminogenic nature of online and communications technologies. Much of this early research focused on selected 'cybercrimes' (e.g., hacking, spamming, copyright infringements) and, more recently, on a broader range of interpersonal crimes and deviant behaviours.
There are, however, a whole range of harmful behaviours occurring online that have largely escaped criminological attention. Many of these behaviours may not be defined as crimes in law (or may yet to be made crimes), and some may not be seen as ‘deviant’ within certain communities or subcultures where they have become normative.
Nonetheless, there are online harms that can produce negative financial, psychological or physical effects on individuals and society alike, and as such their social acceptance has been changing in recent years. Among these are toxic communicative practices happening in cyberspace and willingly or unwillingly causing social harms because, for instance, false information is shared, or because an individual or social group is attacked.
This special issue aims at furthering criminological attention on antisocial behaviours and toxic communication online by welcoming contributions on the following topics: information pollution online; harmful digital communities; digital propaganda and radicalisation; antisocial behaviour in online virtual worlds; digital micro-harassment; online hate speech; cross-platforms affordances, trends and challenges; and as harm prevention and harm reduction strategies.
Important Dates
The Guest Editors encourage prospective authors to submit extended abstracts for consideration by 17 June 2022. They may be sent to either A.Lavorgna@Soton.ac.uk or Anastasia.Powell@rmit.edu.au.
Submission deadline: 31 October 2022
About the Guest Editors
Anita Lavorgna (this opens in a new tab)
Anita Lavorgna is an Associate Professor within the Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology at the University of Southampton. She joined Southampton in 2015, after one year lecturing at the University of Wolverhampton. Anita is currently leading funded research projects on medical mis/disinformation, tech resistance, and risky sharenting practices. Here main research interests are cyber harms and cybercrimes, information pollution and its propagation online, ethics in online research, and sociotechnical approaches in online research.
Anastasia Powell (this opens in a new tab)
Anastasia Powell is Associate Professor of Criminology and Justice Studies at RMIT University, specializing in technology-facilitated abuse, gender-based violence, and cybercrime. She has published widely in these fields, including eight books, and has contributed to policy-specific research for the Victorian State and Australian Commonwealth Governments. Anastasia is Chief Editor of the Springer book series on Crime and Justice in Digital Society (this opens in a new tab), a Board Director of Our Watch (which works to prevent violence against women and children), and a member of the National Women's Safety Alliance in Australia. Her book Digital Criminology (Routledge 2018) seeks to extend criminological research and theorising on crime, harm and justice in the context of our digital society.
Instructions
Submitted manuscripts must be original and must not be under consideration for publication elsewhere. All submissions should be made online to the European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research. Manuscripts will be reviewed by independent referees, as per the journal’s standard evaluation process. The editors will base their final decisions on the relevance to the special issue, technical quality, innovative content, and originality of research approaches and results. All submitted manuscripts must be fully compliant with the journal's Submission guidelines (this opens in a new tab).
Submissions should be uploaded via Editorial Manager (see http://www.editorialmanager.com/crim). To ensure your paper is considered for this special issue, reply “yes” when asked during submission whether it is intended for a special issue, and select the relevant title from the drop-down menu. You may also wish to mention the special issue in your cover letter. Optional extended abstracts should be submitted to one of the Guest Editors via email.