Deterrence in Cyberspace: An Interdisciplinary Review of the Empirical Literature

Abstract

The popularity of the deterrence perspective across multiple scientific disciplines has sparked a lively debate regarding its relevance in influencing both offenders and targets in cyberspace. Unfortunately, due to the invisible borders between academic disciplines, most of the published literature on deterrence in cyberspace is confined within unique scientific disciplines. This chapter therefore provides an interdisciplinary review of the issue of deterrence in cyberspace. It begins with a short overview of the deterrence perspective, presenting the ongoing debates concerning the relevance of deterrence pillars in influencing cybercriminals' and cyberattackers' operations in cyberspace. It then reviews the existing scientific evidence assessing various aspects of deterrence in the context of several disciplines: criminology, law, information systems, and political science. This chapter ends with a few policy implications and proposed directions for future interdisciplinary academic research.

Some New Challenges of Cybercrime and Reasons Why Regulations are Outdated

“…Based on all of the above, it is important for lawyers to study cybercrime, not only from a legal point of view, but also from the point of view of other sciences, in order to fully understand what cybercrime is and who is a cybercriminal (Ghosh & Turrini, 2014, Maimon, 2020). A number of studies have pointed out that the cybercriminal is a new type of criminal who in many cases does not need to take any action other than to use a keyboard.…”