Social Media and Offline Violence Research Partner

The London Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) are looking for a research partner to investigate the relationship between social media and offline physical violence affecting children & young people in London.

The VRU recognises that social media is ubiquitous in young people's lives.

Young Londoners are often exposed to violent and harmful content which may increase the risk of physical violence or criminal exploitation.

Additionally, social media content has been increasingly utilised in the criminal justice system to argue a causal link between online behaviour and instances of offline violence; however, the specific links between online content and real-world physical violence are not well understood.

Given the scale of social media, the VRU is particularly interested in understanding the impact of specific types of online content: - Violent content - defined as content that e…