MSCJ student Annalyssia Soonah presents her research at SCJA

KENNESAW, Ga. (Sep 17, 2021) — Mentored by Dr. Gang Lee MSCJ student Annalyssia Soonah was able to complete and present her research at the SCJA conference in Daytona Beach this month.  Annalyssia shared her experience below.

“The Southern Criminal Justice Association conference was a wonderful experience that opened a lot of different doors and provided me with a number of opportunities that I did not know or have before. First and foremost, having the opportunity to talk to different professionals in the criminal justice academic field and professionals within the law enforcement field was one of the greatest opportunities the conference provided. Not only did this opportunity help my network connections, but I learned a lot among both sides of the field. Many of the professionals shared important knowledge in regard to the field and disciple, but they also shared their personal experience which was extremely helpful. Furthermore, this conference was very enjoyable because of the people and the environment. A lot of the people showed an interest in my specific poster presentation, but also all of the others. Many of the professionals in the field were very encouraging and expressed their excitement for us all in the future. Additionally, many expressed how proud they were to see the amount of research being done and all the hard work that went into the research. This specific conference and many other conferences also provided different tabling events specifically for students and some for students and professionals. The tabling events provided great opportunities for networking and to become more familiar with the opportunities available. Overall, the Southern Criminal Justice Association conference was very enjoyable! I would definitely recommend going because it is a great experience!

I personally did a poster presentation at the conference. My presentation was about the association between risk factors and anonymity among cyber trolling and cyber victimization. This specific study surveyed college students because there is a lack of studies with college students as the sample. Cyber trolling can be defined as behaviors that can potentially be misleading, catastrophic, or troublesome with no instrumental purpose interfering with social settings on the internet. Many individuals partake in cyber trolling because they are bored, they want attention, they want to have fun, or they want to cause some sort of damage among an individual or community. The overall results of the study indicated that the more hours spent on the internet could possibly result in greater cyber trolling behaviors. Furthermore, the study indicated males are more likely to participate in cyber trolling behaviors compared to females. Additionally, the study resulted in no effect in regard to anonymity. Overall, there needs to be more research conducted because the risk factors of cyber victimization are not the same as cyber trolling behaviors.”