ABSTRACT
Criminologists have become increasingly interested in how social media affects inter-gang dynamics. The posturing and provocation characteristic of gang members’ social media interactions, colloquially known as “internet banging,” can sometimes result in physical violence and even homicide. To date, existing research has examined this digital bravado as a cooperative effort and has not meaningfully interrogated how social media may have complicated internal gang structures and the divergent roles gang members may occupy within their respective groups. Drawing from ethnographic research in a Canadian “ghetto” – Toronto’s Regent Park – this chapter will analyze how social media has affected a gang’s internal social organization, specifically as it relates to expectations surrounding “internet banging.” It will outline how gang-involved men who traditionally occupied the role of “hustler” and refrained from collective violence felt mounting pressure to participate in the “internet banging” of their “gangbanger” peers. It discusses how the new gang milieu of social media has augmented the perceived expectation for gang members to participate in violent posturing, thereby pushing even those less inclined to “internet bang” to assume the inherent and potentially fatal risks of such behaviors. Through this, it highlights some of the contradictions within de-contextualized online performances and draws attention to how situated dynamics, positions, tensions, and intra-gang relationships influence “internet banging.”
