Violent rhetoric online is becoming increasingly relevant to the practice of forensic mental health assessment as examinee's virtual lives may transform into real-world acts of violence. With the rise of a diverse subculture of violent online communities, the aim of the present study was to inform how concerns with online sources of collateral data and racial/ethnic biases may influence determinations of violence potential. Using an experimental design, jury-eligible participants (N = 278) and forensic mental health experts (N = 78) were presented with mock Twitter (now referred to as X) posts that varied by data source (i.e., how information was accessed) and the examinee's race/ethnicity. Results showed no differences in participants' ratings of data credibility, how much weight they would place on the posts in a threat assessment, or how likely the examinee was to act violently against his intended target. Implications regarding the interpretation of social media evidence, relevant limitations, and future research are discussed.

中文翻译：

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互联网是一个可怕的地方：证据来源和受试者种族或民族如何影响威胁的确定？

由于受检者的虚拟生活可能转变为现实世界的暴力行为，在线暴力言论与法医心理健康评估的实践变得越来越相关。随着暴力在线社区多元化亚文化的兴起，本研究的目的是了解对在线附属数据来源和种族/民族偏见的担忧如何影响暴力潜力的确定。使用实验设计，向符合陪审团资格的参与者 ( N  = 278) 和法医心理健康专家 ( N  = 78) 展示模拟 Twitter（现在称为 X）帖子，这些帖子因数据源（即如何访问信息）而异。以及考生的种族/民族。结果显示，参与者对数据可信度的评分、他们在威胁评估中对帖子的重视程度，或者受试者对其预定目标采取暴力行为的可能性有多大，没有差异。讨论了有关社交媒体证据解释、相关局限性和未来研究的影响。