Article Review Two
By Ned Smith
Introduction
The paper chosen is titled “The impact of Low Self-control on Past and Future Cyber Offending” and is published by the International Journal of Cyber Criminology. The article was written by Brook Nodeland and published in June 2020 as part of Volume Fourteen, Part One of the International Journal of Cyber Criminology. The article seeks to “empirically examine the relationship between self-control theory and cyber offending”, or to be more specific, “… we examine the role of self-control in the past and anticipated cyber offending behaviors… to explore differences in the influence of self-control on past behavior and likelihood of engaging in future cyber offences” (Nodeland-Morris, 2020).
Methodology
Data was collected from a midsize southern university from undergraduate students at the college through self-administered questionnaires. Nodeland and Morris note that while the study was conducted in 2010 and may limit the data, it shouldn’t take away from the findings of the study, citing a 2019 Reyns study about the matter. The survey was administered by contacting a variety of professors from a variety of different majors to get the largest and most accurate sample size. The departments contacted included required higher enrollment classes in majors such as political science, computer science, macroeconomics, and as well as criminology classes. The professors were asked to administer the survey at the beginning of their class and to let the students know that the participation was voluntary and that their answers would not be confidential and would only be used for the study. 11 out of 17 teachers agreed, resulting in the participation of 857 students in total, as students were also told not to take the survey if they took it in another class. Only 428 cases ended up being used due to missing data, meaning over half of the total responses were not used in the findings.
Data and Analysis
51.5% of the respondents were non-technical majors while 48.5% were technical majors while 43% of respondents were female and 57% were male. The average age was 22 and the race makeup consisted of 54% White, 21% Asian, 14% Hispanic, 6% other, and 5% African American. 99% of the respondents also reported feeling some level of comfort using a computer. Within the report, table two presents the relationship between cyber-offending and the level of self-control, as the report states “Column 1 establishes a base model for examining cyber offending while column 2 explores the relationship between self-control and cyber offending” (Nodeland-Morris, 2020). The findings indicate a positive relationship between familiarity or knowledge with computers and the rate of cyber offending, as well as a correlation between race and cyber offending. This correlation suggests that non-white individuals are more likely to participate in activities that would be classified as “cyber offending”. While the second column did suggest that higher rates of self-control decreased the likelihood of participating in cyber offending, “…its effect on cyber offending was not statistically significant in this model” (Nodeland-Morris, 2020).
Cyber Principles and Class Material
The most obvious connection this study has to social principles is its connection to the principle of determinism. Determinism is the idea that events one has experienced in the past influence behavior and the decisions one makes down the line. Self-control is something that is learned rather than something people are just born with and its most developed by parents and through the educational system. If people are not taught to have better management of self-control, it can lead to outcomes later in life that impacts people in a negative way. This can include cyber-offending and, as the study has suggested, those who have lower levels of self-control are more likely to participate in cyber offending overall. Another social principle that was important to this study, although not as important as determinism, was ethical neutrality. Ethical neutrality ensures scientist approach and conducts studies from an ethical standpoint and has certain ethics they don’t break. An example of this was the scientist ensuring that no revealing information was released on the identities of the students in the survey and that their answers were anonymous. Another example of this was the scantiest discarding roughly half of the results because of missing information, showing that even if the information would have proved their point, they would not provide it if it wasn’t up to their ethical standards. A topic it relates to from class would be in Module Four when we discussed the various factors that could increase the risk of cyber offending. Among these factors was low self-control, like what the study was discussed in the first place and ultimately sought to prove.
Impact and Relation to Marginalized Groups
The study impacts a variety of subjects, but it mainly serves to provide a link between self-control and the likelihood that an individual will participate in cyber offending. While the study doesn’t provide a definite link, it adds to the idea that the less self-control an individual has, the more likely they are to cyber offend. There are many different possible causes of cybercrime but identifying the root causes that can lead to it can help us prevent it from happening in the future. This knowledge allows experts to have better insight into which individuals are likely to participate in this behavior and thus, which individuals to provide more assistance to help them steer clear of a possible dark future. Examples of assistance could be educating these individuals on the wrongs of cyber offending and, more importantly, the consequences these actions have on others as well as themselves. Another important impact of this study is the fact that it showed information that non-white individuals are more likely to participate in cyber offending than white individuals. The best and most supported explanation for this is that, due to the long history of disenfranchisement and inequality that non-whites have experienced in America, they are generally at a lower economic level than most whites. Inequality is one of the number one indicators of crime and that also pertains to cybercrime, meaning nonwhites are more likely to commit cybercrimes than whites due to a lower economic status. This allows information will add to already overwhelming evidence that something must be done to help lower-income communities. By helping these communities, we can not only raise these communities out of poverty, but we can also prevent a percentage of crime, including cyber offenses.
Cited Study
- Nodeland, B., & Morris, R. (2020). The Impact of Low Self-control on Past and Future Cyber Offending. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 14(1), 106-120. http://proxy.lib.odu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/impact-low-self-control-on-past-future-cyber/docview/2404395000/se-2