Fernández Planells, Ariadna, 1983-Orduña-Malea, EnriqueFeixa, Carles, 1962-2021-05-122021-05-122021Fernández-Planells A, Orduña-Malea E, Feixa Pàmpols C. Gangs and social media: a systematic literature review and an identification of future challenges, risks and recommendations. New Media Soc. 2021 Feb 26. DOI: 10.1177/14614448219944901461-4448http://hdl.handle.net/10230/47401Data de publicació electrónica: 26-02-2021Gang literature increasingly reflects the importance of social media in gang lifestyle, as gang members adopt new communicative practices. Yet, because of the multifaceted nature of online gang activity and the diversity of methodologies employed, a general overview of research outcomes is not easily achieved. This article seeks to remedy this by analysing academic studies of gang use of social media. A systematic literature review was conducted in Scopus and Google Scholar databases, which led to the identification of 73 publications. We then undertook a content analysis of each publication using an exhaustive evaluation model, comprising 20 variables and 71 categories. A bibliometric analysis was also performed to determine the structural characteristics of the research community that generates these publications. Our results point to an emerging universe of publications with different themes, methods, samples and ethical protocols. The challenges, risks and recommendations for future social media research with youth street groups are identified.application/pdfengThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461444821994490BibliometricsContent analysisGangsGoogle ScholarScopusSocial mediaSocial networking sitesSystematic reviewYouth street groupsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess