Passive Scrolling on Social Media, by Avalan Nuovo. Licensed by Adobe.
LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 2, 2026) — A new article co-authored by University of Kentucky College of Social Work (CoSW) faculty member Paul Bleakley, Ph.D., examines how public conversations about high-profile criminal trials can shape, challenge and contest who is recognized as a victim.
Published in Victims & Offenders, the article, “Who Gets to Be a Victim? Public Responses to Victimhood in Diddy’s Trial,” analyzes public reaction to Sean “Diddy” Combs’ 2025 federal trial. Combs was acquitted of racketeering and sex trafficking charges and convicted of prostitution-related offenses, a mixed verdict that sparked widespread public debate online.
Bleakley co-authored the article with Daniel Sailofsky, Ph.D., of the University of Toronto, and Maurice St Matthews, doctoral candidate at the University of New Haven. Together, the research team examined 1,000 high-engagement Instagram comments to better understand how social media users responded to the victims, the defendant and the broader meaning of justice in the case.
Their findings revealed a sharply polarized response.
In many comments, victim status was denied or minimized. Some commenters mocked the victims, questioned their credibility or shifted blame back onto those who made allegations against Combs. Other comments, however, framed the verdict as part of a larger pattern: the criminal legal system’s inability to consistently deliver justice for women, particularly in cases involving power, fame, sexual violence and public scrutiny.
“High-profile trials do not end when the verdict is read,” Bleakley said. “They continue to be argued in public spaces, especially online, where people make sense of guilt, innocence, credibility and harm in real time. What we found is that victimhood itself became contested.”
The article explores how social media can become a cultural battleground in the aftermath of major criminal cases. In the Diddy trial, researchers found that commenters were not only reacting to the evidence or the verdict. They were also debating who deserved sympathy, whose suffering counted and whether the legal system was capable of recognizing certain forms of harm.
The research also identified a smaller but significant set of comments that framed Combs as a victim of racialized persecution. The authors connect this response to the concept of “himpathy,” a term coined by philosopher Kate Manne to describe disproportionate sympathy extended to men accused of misogyny, sexual assault or harassment, often at the expense of their alleged victims.
“In many of the comments we analyzed, victim status was denied and blame was redirected toward the victims, who were often mocked or criticized for their allegations against Combs,” Bleakley said. “At the same time, a large proportion of comments framed the verdict as another example of the criminal legal system’s structural inability to produce justice for women. That polarization shows how high-profile trials can become public battlegrounds over credibility, accountability and whose experiences are recognized as harm.”
For Bleakley, the study contributes to a growing body of research on crime, media and public perception. It also reflects the importance of examining digital spaces as sites where legal narratives are created and contested.
“Social media is not the justice system, but it is one place where public perceptions of justice are formed and contested,” Bleakley said. “In high-profile cases, online reactions can reveal how people understand victims, defendants, credibility and accountability. Those conversations can reinforce harmful myths, but they can also surface deep frustration with systems that many believe fail survivors.”
The article also highlights the role of criminal justice scholarship in helping students and the public better understand the relationship between law, culture and power. As a faculty member in the criminal justice program, Bleakley will teach Cyberdeviance and Cyberviolence, a newly developed course that examines crime and harmful behavior in digital spaces, while helping students study crime and justice through interdisciplinary, evidence-based and human-centered perspectives.
As one of the first criminal justice faculty members to join the CoSW following the launch of its criminal justice programs in fall 2023, Bleakley has played an important role in building the college’s visibility within the field. His scholarship and professional engagement have helped expand CoSW’s presence at major national conferences, including the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and the American Society of Criminology.
The article is available online through Victims & Offenders.