The Relationship Between Facebook Reactions and Sharing Investigative Requests for Assistance

The use of social media as an investigative tool is widespread by law enforcement agencies. In this article, we review the public requests for investigative assistance posted by different law enforcement agencies across the nation to determine what Facebook reactions are associated with additional s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of police and criminal psychology 2019-12, Vol.34 (4), p.410-416
Main Authors: Brunell, Kimberly F., Craun, Sarah W., Davis, Briana
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anger
Audiences
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Community relations
Crime
Criminal investigations
Criminology and Criminal Justice
Emotions
Humor
Law and Psychology
Law enforcement
Law enforcement agencies
Missing persons
Police departments
Police-Citizen interactions
Psychology
Public opinion
Self report
Social & emotional learning
Social media
Social networks
Systematic review
User behavior
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Summary:The use of social media as an investigative tool is widespread by law enforcement agencies. In this article, we review the public requests for investigative assistance posted by different law enforcement agencies across the nation to determine what Facebook reactions are associated with additional shares. Using like, love, sad, wow, angry, and funny clicks as proxies for the emotions community members report feeling, the goal is to provide empirically supported advice to law enforcement agencies about how to set the tone of their requests to reach the widest audience, measured by the number of times the post has been shared. When controlling for the type of crime listed, we found a positive relationship between the number of funny or sad clicks and the number of shares, while those posts that elicit angry clicks were shared fewer times. The strength of the relationships and the implications for law enforcement messaging are discussed.
ISSN:0882-0783
1936-6469
DOI:10.1007/s11896-018-9297-6