The Microsociology of Online Deviance (MOD-Lab)

The project will design an intervention to address the problem behaviour of the online buying and selling of illicit puff bars and related tobacco and nicotine products by answering the following questions:

Where can puff bars be purchased and how? What criminogenic risks do they pose to young people and to wider society? And, importantly, how can these issues be addressed?

The project will thus tackle the identified crisis of the illicit puffbar market by establishing the sociological and economic factors that drive the behaviour of individuals participating in the market for puffbars, specifically considering the rationalisations of both buyers and sellers involved, and identifying the criminogenic risks affecting victims in the local context of tobacco and nicotine products.

More broadly, the project will expose and address the criminogenic dangers presented by overlapping illicit markets, given the opportunities for recruitment of young people and the risk of them entering a cycle of consumption and engagement that may compromise their health and simultaneously encourage them to increase their involvement in criminal activity.

The project expect to deliver results and dissemination in the summer 2024.  

The project is financed by Tryg Foundation. Read more about the project here

PI: Jakob Demant

This research project aims to understand youth crime from an offender perspective, a dimension that has so far been neglected. While many studies have been conducted on victims' experiences and exposure to various forms of crime, relatively few studies seek to understand the factors that drive perpetrators to offend. Gaining this understanding is crucial to developing effective prevention measures that can address the underlying causes of criminal behaviour. One of the challenges of studying offenders is that traditional survey methods have limited access to uncovering behaviour and motives.

This study will therefore utilise an original, but already proven, digital ethnographic method in combination with 'Ungeprofilundersøgelsen' in a mixed-method design. HUK creates a solid basis for analyses that can contribute to strengthening both national research and the development of prevention efforts in the area.

The project is financed by Crime Prevention Council and Ulla V. Bondensens Foundation.

PI: Jakob Demant

Projektet ledes af Jakob Demant (KU) i samarbejde med Peter Kruize (CFKA).

I flere studier har det vist sig, at markeder for forskellige legale varer, fx brugte varer, overlapper med køb og salg af illegale varer samt varer, der oprindeligt var stjålne. Dette studie har til formål at beskrive de varer og personer, der handler i sådanne grupper, med særligt fokus på grupper på Facebook.

Med fremkomsten af sociale medier kan vi nu identificere platformbaserede markedspladser som Marketplace, Blocket og DBA, hvor stjålne varer skjules blandt andre varer, legale ydelser og illegale aktiviteter. Der findes imidlertid også grupper på sociale medier, der fungerer på en anden måde, hvor legal og illegal aktivitet overlapper.

Dette studie fokuserer på at beskrive disse grupper og de strategier, som sælgere anvender. Især undersøges, hvordan de forholder sig til markedspladsens moderation og myndighedernes indblanding. Vores foreløbige resultater viser, at der findes en lang række Facebook-grupper, der er centreret omkring afvigelse og kriminalitet. Disse grupper strukturerer handel med stjålne varer, men tilbyder også "kriminalitet-som-en-tjeneste" – fx betaling for at tage bøder eller klip i kørekort på andres vegne.

Studiet sigter mod at forstå den blanding af sælgere, der findes i grupperne, og hvordan de forskellige grupper agerer.

Hvis du er blevet spurgt om at deltage i studiet, kan vi forsikre dig om fuld anonymitet. Vi indsamler ikke personhenførbare oplysninger og gemmer ingen data, der kan afsløre din identitet.

Har du spørgsmål, er du altid velkommen til at kontakte Jakob Demant.

ManuScrape is a user-friendly software designed to make large-scale netnographic research accessible to everyone. It is developed by MOD-lab and Codecollective as a bespoke tool for data collection within MOD-lab projects. It allows you to collect, enrich and analyze data from platforms like Discord, Facebook, Instagram and any other web-based platform effortlessly. With ManuScrape, you can capture visual interactions, add notes, code, and ensure data privacy with anonymization features to stay GDPR compliant.


The program builds upon research principles of least-intrusive as it captures observations, that is state of art in social science, digital humanities as well in NGO, media and other watch dogs of online behaviour. ManuScrape is also built on open-source principles, meaning its code is freely available for anyone to view, modify, and contribute to. This transparency fosters both trustworthiness of GDPR compliance, but also collaboration and innovation. In this way we aims to ensure ManuScrape remains accessible, reliable, and continuously improving.

You can already start to work with ManuScrape. All key features are working. But if you want to go beyond testing it please refer to Jakob Demant for a Data Controller agreement. We expect to be able to have the program free of change for the next 2024-2025. Access the web version of ManuScrape at manuscrape.org and download the native app at the github repository.

PI: Jakob Demant
Ph.d.: Jonatan Mizrahi-Werner

The Journal Club is a monthly get-together of colleagues associated with the MOD-Lab, led by Professor Jakob Demant and involving researchers at all levels from postdocs to PhD students and student assistants working on their Bachelor’s and Master’s theses. We also like to invite Copenhagen based colleges from UCPH and beyond.

The concept is that published journal articles are chosen in advance of each session for all that wish to attend to read and prepare brief contributions for group discussion. The articles or journals will relate to the overarching research areas of the MOD-Lab, including themes such as digital sociological research, netnographic methods, ethics, hate, deviance, online microsociology, criminology, and so on.

The aim is to create an inclusive and supportive platform for fruitful and inspiring conversations and exchanges that may lead to further collaboration including ideas for writing new papers or funding applications together, attending and organising conferences, and beyond.

We focus on journal articles that is published in criminology, sociology and media studies, with the focus on digital aspects of crime and behaviour. Journals as 'New Media & Society', 'Theoretical Criminology', 'Big Data & Society' and 'Deviant Behaviour'.