Perceived Formal and Informal Sanctions in Deterring Cybercrime in a College Sample

The threat of formal sanctions is the criminal justice system’s primary tool to discourage online and offline deviant behavior. Yet, scholars have expressed strong concerns about the effectiveness of formal sanctions to deter cybercrime. Even more surprising is the sparsity of deterrence research in...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bossler, Adam M. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2021
In: Journal of contemporary criminal justice
Year: 2021, Volume: 37, Issue: 3, Pages: 452-470
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Keywords:
Online harassment
Computer hacking
Piracy
Cybercrime
Informal sanctions
Formal sanctions
Deterrence
Description
Summary:The threat of formal sanctions is the criminal justice system’s primary tool to discourage online and offline deviant behavior. Yet, scholars have expressed strong concerns about the effectiveness of formal sanctions to deter cybercrime. Even more surprising is the sparsity of deterrence research in the cybercrime literature. This study examined the effects of perceived formal and informal sanctions on digital piracy, computer hacking, and online harassment in a large American college sample. Perceived formal sanctions was negatively correlated with software piracy, media piracy, password cracking, accessing accounts, sending mean messages privately online, and posting mean messages. Higher levels of perceived formal sanctions did not significantly predict any form of cybercrime, however, when controlling for informal sanctions and deviant peer associations. The implications of the findings for our ability to deter deviant behavior in cyberspace are explored.
ISSN:1552-5406
DOI:10.1177/10439862211001630