CREEP WINS THE “BEST WORKSHOP PRESENTATION” AWARD AT THE MEETING OF THE ITALIAN SOCIETY OF CRIMINOLOGY

Project manager Serena Bressan of Fondazione Bruno Kessler and Gabriele Baratto, researcher of the eCrime group – School of Law of the University of Trento, are back from the chief town of Calabria where the 32nd meeting of the Italian Society of Criminology, on the topic of “violent relations”, took place at the “Magna Graecia” University of Catanzaro. They brought home, to Trento, a wonderful “souvenir” of their participation: the first prize – among the 60 that took part in the workshops – won for the “Best workshop presentation” on the CREEP (Cyberbullying Effects Prevention) scientific project.

The talks by Trentino researchers at the meeting were two: the first on how to prevent the possible negative effects of cyberbullying thanks to new technologies; the second, the one that won the award, illustrated the results of a study aimed at creating a platform to fight cyberbullying (“Violent relationships between young people on the Internet: learning about cyber-bullies and cyber-victims thanks to qualitative-quantitative research” – authors: Andrea Di Nicola, Gabriele Baratto, Enrico Maria Piras, Serena Bressan, Filippo Oncini).

Specifically, the research presented at Catanzaro was carried out using a qualitative-quantitative method based on:

a) an online victimization questionnaire for young people in Italy between the ages of 11 and 17 to understand in detail what the characteristics of cyber-bullies are today (profiles, most used technology tools, etc.) and cyber-victims (profiles, reaction to victimization episodes, etc.);

b) workshops with high school students from Trentino, aimed at simulating cyberbullying dynamics on social media and analyzing the possibilities of support to victims.

Cyber-bullying (bullying through electronic instruments) is a growing and constantly evolving phenomenon. One of the frontiers in the fight against the phenomenon is the creation of “intelligent” technologies capable of offering analysis and intervention tools to the various stakeholders. However, the applications on the market are rarely designed starting from a scientific analysis of the phenomenon.

The results of the study will be used as a scientific basis to develop technological tools for the early detection of online bullying phenomena through the monitoring of social media and the communication of preventive advice and personalized recommendations for adolescents through a virtual assistant (chatbot).

The award assigned to researchers consists, in addition to the publicity and formal recognition, in the publication of the abstract on the Italian Criminology Review, the official body of the Italian Society of Criminology, a subscription to the magazine, which publishes studies and research results on Clinical Criminology, Psychology and Forensic Psychiatry, Sociology of Deviance, Criminal Policy, and free participation in the next national congress to be held in Modena in 2019.

The CREEP project   is promoted and funded by EIT Digital in the Digital Wellbeing action line, and coordinated by the Fondazione Bruno Kessler /TrentinoSalute4.0 of Trento (e-health and Digital Humanities Group), in partnership with the eCrime group   of the School of Law of the University of Trento, the Italian company Expert System, the French research center INRIA and the German startup Neuronation. The length of the project is 12 months, from January to December 2018.