A concept on social media measurement in crime prevention

Social media are an increasingly widespread tool to influence the knowledge, awareness, attitude and behavior of individuals. Logically, the authorities have started to use social media in order to increase the knowledge and awareness on moral courage, promote a positive attitude and motivate corresponding behavior. Moral courage can be an appropriate means to prevent criminal behavior, and represents a valuable social good. However, while there are several studies on the effectiveness of social media campaigns in different public policy areas including health, there is lack of empirical evidence on the effect of social media campaigns on moral courage. This study aims to provide the theoretical foundation for such empirical work. Pursuing this aim, it proceeds as follows. First, it operationalizes the concept of moral courage. Second, it assesses the established models from the social marketing framework regarding their ability to describe the interrelationships between the preventive message, the individual, the social media environment and the act of moral courage. Third, it assesses the established measurement methods form social media marketing regarding their ability to quantify the effect of the social media campaign on moral courage. Finally, it describes the process of conducting a cost-benefit analysis of such a social media campaign.