ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some of the finer points of the ‘internet banging’ phenomena because they can be overstated, or at the very least oversimplified, by the media and policymakers. It discusses how social media has changed gangs’ relationship with each other and with gang territory and how the internet has created new incentives for gang violence and new avenues for its perpetration, with implications for policy and practice. “County lines” is a term used by the police to describe a growing practice among UK gangs: travelling from major cities to remote rural areas, market towns, or coastal locations in search of new customers for illicit goods and services, especially heroin and crack cocaine. Gangs have long used music videos to present gang life as aspirational. As technology has improved, the look and feel of these videos has changed from amateurish and freeform to professional and crafted.
