Pursuing justice online: Citizen participation in justice via social media

Rapid developments in information and communications technologies have transformed the capacity of communities to engage with local crime events and justice responses. Significantly, user-generated material shared via social media has the capacity both to assist and disrupt law enforcement efforts and other justice responses in relation to these crime events. Yet, despite an established and growing field of research within criminology that focuses on technology-enabled crime, there is a dearth of scholarly work that considers the justice implications of communications technologies. This paper explores the nature and implications of citizen participation in both formal and informal justice responses via social media, and proposes directions for future research.