Book review: Social Media Victimization: Theories and Impacts of Cyberpunishment
| Published date | 01 May 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/02697580231205922 |
| Author | Laura Higson-Bliss |
| Date | 01 May 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
Book Reviews 419
people from cages, and diminish the state’s capacity for violence’ (p. 188). These might include
removal of mandatory minimum sentencing, establishing effective self-defence laws for women
who kill their abuser (and which withstand the stereotyping that differentiates ‘good’ and ‘bad’
victims), and the redirection of the huge government funds now used for policing and prisons to
effective community supports (the broad concept of ‘justice reinvestment’).
Professor Goodmark therefore argues that feminist abolitionists must both advocate for aboli-
tion and also drive reforms to change the experience of criminalised survivors – the ‘imperfect
victims’ of her title. Her book is an impressive contribution to the debates on abolition which must
urgently be engaged in, around the world, as incarceration continues to be an unsuccessful and
destructive response to violence.
Jessica Emami
Social Media Victimization: Theories and Impacts of Cyberpunishment
Lexington Books: Lanham, MD, 2023; xviii + 91 pp.: ISBN 9781793629654
Reviewed by: Laura Higson-Bliss , Keele University, UK (l.a.higson-bliss@keele.ac.uk)
DOI: 10.1177/02697580231205922
Jessica Emami’s Social Media Victimisation: Theories and Impacts of Cyberpunishment offers a
theoretical explanation to many of the questions which arise when trying to understand why people
do what they do on social media, and why we need to be concerned with the growing trend in
‘cyberpunishment’. Embedding her arguments in Terror Management Theory (TMT) and Quest for
Significance Theory (QST), Emami explores these psychological explanations as to why individu-
als engage in certain behaviours online, which they might not necessarily do in the physical world.
She applies these theories to online behaviours which are often not noted when discussing online
‘harms’. Most notably, cancel culture and its use to punish people online to enforce another’s ‘own
moral beliefs and social norms’ (p. 3).
The introductory chapter provides a strong setting for later arguments made in the book, explor-
ing and setting out the advancements of digital media and its importance in human connection.
This human connection is something that still underpins modern digital media today. However, as
noted by Emami, ‘[b]oth the technology and the policy landscape and regulatory environment sur-
rounding the technology were far less complex than it is today’ (p. XVI). Such ease of access to
new forms of communication has led to the blurring of the public and private domain and, in turn,
the rise in the use of social media to ‘punish’ another.
Chapter 1 focuses on the use of social media to cancel another. A ‘harm’ not often discussed and
is used throughout the book to showcase how different ‘harms’ can result in cancellation. So why
then are people cancelled online and if such consequences do exist, why do people continue to post
comments which may result in ‘social death’ (p. 1)? For Emami, this can be easily explained. We
punish people online for behaviour society deems morally unacceptable, while people continue to
post controversial comments for acknowledgement (TMT) and affirmation (QST), with its results
often seeping from the online world into the physical world.
Chapter 2 proceeds to explore this interconnection between the offline and online world
further, with Emami correctly noting: ‘What occurs online has a direct impact on the quality
of our physical lives’ (p. 23). To illustrate this point, Emami makes use of several examples,
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