A Spatial Analysis of Rape and Sexual Assault Discussions on Twitter

• In Event: Roundtable: Sexual Violence and Consent

Abstract

Although studies show that media influences attitudes towards rape and sexual assault, research has not examined how – both topically and spatially – these crimes are discussed in social media. This topic is timely given that several rape cases (e.g., Steubenville and Torrington) first came to light via use of social media outlets. Research suggests that new media, such as Twitter can serve as a public sphere for society to gather and discuss ideas (Papacharissi, 2002; Murthy, 2010). The current study analyzes and spatially locates tweets on rape culture (i.e., tweets that condone or normalize sexual violence), as well as tweets that oppose rape culture (i.e., tweets that combat rape culture ideology) across the United States. We do so by examining 5,000 geocoded tweets that contain the keywords rape and/or sexual assault to assess how discussions of rape culture vary spatially in the United States. Second, we incorporate contextual-level variables to estimate characteristics of the population at the county-level that may be predictive of how sexual assault is depicted on Twitter.

Authors

• Megan Suzanne Stubbs-Richardson, Mississippi State University

• Colleen Harris, Mississippi State University

• Stacy Haynes, Mississippi State University