TY - JOUR
T1 - Social Media Sentiment Analysis: A New Empirical Tool for Assessing Public Opinion on Crime?
AU - Prichard, Jeremy
AU - Watters, Paul
AU - KRONE, Tony
AU - Spiranovic, Caroline
AU - COCKBURN, HELEN
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - 'Big data' presents many interesting opportunities and challenges. This article focuses on the potential use of social media sentiment analysis as a legitimate tool for criminological research to better understand public perceptions of crime problems and public attitudes to responses to crime. While a degree of scepticism should always apply to the use of unsubstantiated sources on the internet, SMSA is likely to be a rich source of valuable information. Observational SMSA research presents low-level risks in terms of human research ethics principally because the information derived is unlikely to lead to the identification of research subjects. It is arguable, but less certain, that material posted publicly online does not attract a reasonable expectation of privacy for the author. However, the strength of this argument may depend on the particular circumstances in which the material to be analysed was posted.
AB - 'Big data' presents many interesting opportunities and challenges. This article focuses on the potential use of social media sentiment analysis as a legitimate tool for criminological research to better understand public perceptions of crime problems and public attitudes to responses to crime. While a degree of scepticism should always apply to the use of unsubstantiated sources on the internet, SMSA is likely to be a rich source of valuable information. Observational SMSA research presents low-level risks in terms of human research ethics principally because the information derived is unlikely to lead to the identification of research subjects. It is arguable, but less certain, that material posted publicly online does not attract a reasonable expectation of privacy for the author. However, the strength of this argument may depend on the particular circumstances in which the material to be analysed was posted.
KW - Sentiment analysis
KW - big data
KW - criminological research
KW - privacy
KW - attitudes to crime
KW - research ethics
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/d11ab623-d53f-3828-abd1-434924f20105/
U2 - 10.1080/10345329.2015.12036042
DO - 10.1080/10345329.2015.12036042
M3 - Article
SN - 1034-5329
VL - 27
SP - 217
EP - 236
JO - Current Issues in Criminal Justice
JF - Current Issues in Criminal Justice
IS - 2
ER -