Article Review: The Effects of Self-control on the Cyber Victim-Offender Overlap
After I read this article, I found it is cybersecurity research that relates to criminology and found many things in the research related to the principle of social science. For example, it relates to the principle of relativism which means that all things are related, this research states human behavior about self-control can affect or lead to make cyber offending, cyber victimization, and cyber victim-offending overlap, or we can say it shows human behavior relate to technology that can drive to make offending and victimization about technology happens. This research also shows me the principle of empiricism that the researcher uses the previous empirical research or article to support their research and uses the Self-Control Theory that researchers can study the behavior of humans which is real in the sense not just makes on their opinion or hunches to frame their understanding of cybercrime. Then the Self-Control Theory in this research, also shows the principle of parsimony, the principle that means the researcher should keep the explanation as simple as possible which in research tells people who have low self-control will have more chance to be cyber offending, cyber victimization, and cyber victim-offender overlap. It also shows me the principle of determinism which is because people have low self-control characteristics in the previous event in the cyber world such as impulsivity, simple tasks, risk-seeking, etc. influences them to be cyber offending, cyber victimization, and cyber victim-offender overlap. Moreover, this research also has the principle of objectivity and ethical neutrality that researchers don’t have bias, don’t change the result and adhere to it even if it is different from their hypothesis.
This research has three research questions about people’s behavior in cyberspace under the self-control theory viz 1.) “Does low self-control increase the odds of participating in cyber offending?” 2.) “Does low self-control increase the odds of cyber victimization?” and 3.) “Does low self-control significantly increase the odds of both engaging in cyber offending and experiencing cybercrime victimization?” that really makes sense to use these questions in this research in my opinion. The researchers also have the expectation or hypothesis that low self-control will be a significant factor that increases cyber offending, cyber victimization, and cyber victim-offender overlap to people that I also have the same expectation as researchers.
For the sample in this research, the researchers use an American college student at a midsize suburban public university in the southern part of the country during the spring 2018 semester as the sample which has 517 people. The researchers also use the online survey method as a method to collect the data in this research that anonymous survey link will be sent to the student and open for two weeks to let them respond voluntarily.
In the survey, it has 3 dependent variables viz the first, cyber offending was measured by the respondents who were asked a question about the number of times they participated in cyber offending activities in the past year such as posting hurtful information, harassing someone in the online game, etc. Then summed and dichotomized final represent by 1 = have cyber offending and 0 doesn’t have cyber offending. The second, cyber victimization was measured by respondents who were asked a question about the number of times they participated in cyber victimization activities in the past year which was the opposite of cyber offending such as someone posting hurtful to respondents, someone harassing respondents in the online game, etc. Then like cyber offending that is summed and dichotomized final represent by 1 = have cyber victimization and 0 doesn’t have cyber victimization. For the last dependent variable, the cyber victim-offender overlap was measured by a combined measure of 2 previous cyber offending and cyber victimization variables then dichotomized final represent by 1 = have both cyber offending and cyber victimization and 0 = don’t have both cyber offending and cyber victimization.
For the independent variable in this research, it has some variables viz the first, self-control was measured by asking 13 questions about the level of self-control of respondents 1-5 (1 = not at all and 5 = very much) and has an indicator to measure the level of self-control in specific questions such as some questions like “I am good at resisting temptation?” it will use a normal indicator if the respondent responses 5 = 5 but for the question “I am lazy?” it will use a reverse indicator if the respondent responses 5 = 1. So, if it has a higher value, it will have higher self-control. The second, deviant peer was measured by asking the respondents how many times the three respondents’ closest friends engage with cyber offending behavior. Then summed and dichotomized that 1 = have deviant cyber peers and 0 = don’t have deviant cyber peers. For other independent variables such as gender, race, age, hours spent online, and level of computer knowledge was measured by dichotomized or indicator level 1-5. Moreover, the researcher also has control variables that have significance in previous research. I think this research has a good method to get the dependent variable but for the independent variable that has a lot of variables, I think it is more complex than necessary for a self-control topic.
In this research, researchers analyze the data by separating the relationship between self-control and dependent variables into 3 models and then using Stata 15 and logistic regression to analyze these relationships.
For the first model, uses logistic regression to examine the impact of self-control and other variables on cyber offending. It found it has 3 significant predictors of participation in cyber offending viz it has low self-control, having at least 1 deviant cyber peer, and being white. It shows if people have these 3 characteristics, it will increase the percent to have a cyber offending. For the second model, uses logistic regression to examine the impact of self-control and other variables on cyber victimization. It found it has 2 significant predictors of participation in cyber victimization viz having at least 1 deviant cyber peer and being white, but for the low self-control, it has contrast that shows marginally significant to cyber victimization instead. So, it shows only 2 characteristics that make people have increased the percent to have a cyber offending. And the last model uses logistic regression to examine the impact of self-control and other variables on the cyber victim-offender overlap. It found the result like model 1 that has 3 significant predictors of participation in cyber victim-offender viz it has low self-control, having at least 1 deviant cyber peer, and being white, especially to low self-control and people who have these 3 characteristics, will increase the percent to have a cyber victim-offender overlap. So, this research has a resulted that low self-control has significantly affected cyber offending and cyber victim-offender overlap but marginally significantly affects cyber victimization which I have a little disagreement with it because I think low self-control also has significantly affected cyber victimization, however, I need to accept this result because research looks so legit and objectivity.
After I study this research, it makes me can connect some concepts in CYSE201S class to the research first, cybersecurity is an interdisciplinary discipline that can relate to many disciplines. In this research, I can connect this topic of cybersecurity to criminology and psychology at the same time. It also shows me that cybersecurity needs to focus on behavior, not just technology as in this research study about human behavior to determine the factor of cyber offending, cyber victimization, and cyber victim-offender overlap. Moreover, this research also directly states the Self-Control Theory that I learn in class and also indirectly implies Behavioral Theory which deviant peer association is related to cyber offending.
For the relation between this research and the marginalized groups, I think this research topic shows low self-control can be a significant factor to make people commit cyber offending so it shows people who have mental problems or psychopaths that have low self-control more trend to commit cyber offending more than other people who have high self-control in the society which makes society need to concern or focus to this marginalized group before they really commit the cyber offending. Moreover, in this research, it has white people as a primary sample which shows a little portion of other races. It will make people can’t really know whether this research can use for other races or not which will challenge to next study on this topic to increase diversity for more comprehensive.
For the overall societal contributions of this research, it shows society that low self-control can affect to increase the chance of cyber offending which makes society or government can use this information to make policies or programs that reduce and prevent cyber offending in the present day. Moreover, it helps people and the researchers who study this topic have a piece of knowledge more about the cyber victim-offender overlap that has few studies (only has 2 research that studies this overlap when this research was conducted) about it in the present day.
Source:
https://vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1073&context=ijcic