Samenvatting

This contribution explores the hypothesis that the rise of social media use and smartphone possession since 2007 contributed substantially to the international decrease in juvenile crime. The author addresses three processes that aid in understanding how social media and smartphones may have contributed to decreasing juvenile crime statistics. First, activity patterns of young people may have been altered in such a way that substantial less time is spent with unstructured socializing in public places. Second, the rise of social media may have led to additional and alternative possibilities to fulfill psychological and social needs of adolescents, taking away many immaterial motivations for juvenile crime. Third, it is possible that social media and smartphone use have facilitated a shift from offline to online juvenile crime, which is less detected and visible in official crime figures. While these theoretical arguments make the hypothesis plausible, research is needed to provide empirical evidence on the role of social media and smartphones in juvenile crime.