Join the University of Maryland School of Social Work's Office of the Associate Dean for Research for a live discussion with Desmond Patton, PhD, MSW, about his research regarding gang violence online, the importance of domain experts and listening to youth, and how to use artificial intelligence with social work frameworks to reframe gun violence prevention.
Life and Death of the Digital Streets: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Social Media for Gun Violence Prevention
Thursday, Nov. 16 | 12:15-1:45 p.m. EST (Virtual)
Desmond Patton
Desmond Patton, PhD, MSW, professor, Brian and Randi Schwartz University, founding director, SAFELab, chief strategy officer, Penn School of Social Policy & Practice, University of Pennsylvania, is a public interest technologist who is a pioneer in the use of social media and artificial intelligence in the study of gun violence and coined the term "internet banging."
Patton is the recipient of the 2018 Deborah K. Padgett Early Career Achievement Award from the Society for Social Work Research (SSWR) and 2017-2018 Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. He is a Presidential Leadership Scholar and Technology and Human Rights Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard Kennedy School. His work is featured in the A&E show "Secret Life of a Gang Girl: The Untold Story."
Patton studies the ways in which gang-involved youth conceptualize threats on social media, and the extent to which social media shapes and facilitates youth and gang violence. In partnership with the Data Science Institute, he is developing an online tool for detecting aggression in social media posts. Patton’s research on “internet banging” has been featured in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, NPR, Boston Magazine, ABC News, and Vice. It was cited in an amici curae brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in Elonis v. United States, which examined the interpretation of threats on social media.