Fear of Cybercrime in Europe: Examining the Effects of Victimization and Vulnerabilities

Abstract

This study utilizes aspects of Ferraro's risk interpretation model in order to examine how social and physical vulnerabilities and victimization experiences relate to fear of online crime using Eurobarometer survey data. The results of the regression analyses show that individuals with prior cybercrime victimization experiences, women, and individuals with lower social status and lower confidence in their ability to use the Internet report higher levels of fear. Low social status and low confidence was found to have a significant interaction effect with prior victimization experiences in relation to fear of cybercrime. Prior victimization experiences with online fraud appear to increase fear of cybercrime in low social status individuals more than other groups. Experiences with hacked accounts or cyberattacks also intensifies the fear of those with low confidence more than those with a higher amount of confidence. Overall, the results of this study indicate that social and physical vulnerabilities as well as victimization have direct and indirect effects on fear of cybercrime, just as with traditional place-based crimes.

Fear of Cybercrime. An Experimental Study on the Mismatches between Self-Reported and Physiological Measures in a Simulated Cyberattack Environment

“…And as with the previous study, the background in the literature is nonexistent, which makes the content of this experiment the first experimental study on emotional biometry applied to the analysis of fear of cybercrime, not only specific but general. It should be noted that, in contrast to the previous experiment, greater attention and care has been taken to ensure that the two experimental conditions were highly equivalent, following some of the findings recorded in the scarce literature on the fear of cybercrime, which led us to integrate and control in our design both the special knowledge of computing (Virtanen, 2017) and the daily activities of Internet users (Wilsem, 2013). Likewise, this experiment has also been under control procedures of other variables such as the perceived risk of victimization in different cyberplaces, which allowed us to choose that online space perceived as the most insecure for face-to-face testing.…”

“…2.b. Finally, following the research designs of some recent studies on fear of cybercrime (Virtanen, 2017), it was decided to include three variables of daily activities in cyberspace. Firstly, it was asked "usually, how often would you say that you have ACCESSED the following digital platforms?…”

“…The study by Pereira, Spitzberg & Matos (2016) goes further, who, in addition to finding data convergent with previous research, found that dual participation, as victim and aggressor, also appears to be associated with an increased perceived risk of cybervictimization. On the other hand, with regard to economic cybercrime, Virtanen (2017) has recently shown how people who have been victims of malware infection, digital identity theft, personal data theft or fraud have higher rates of perceived risk of future cybervictimization. A few years earlier, Roberts, Indermaur & Spiranovic (2013) showed the same trend regarding previous experiences of digital identity theft.…”

The Power of Municipalities for Legal Regulation and Actual Sanctioning of Local Offenses in Theory and Practice

“…S tem se pomembno zmanjša ogroženost in zagreni življenje kibernetskim kriminalcem. Da bi se izognili negativnemu učinku (Riek in Böhme, 2014;Virtanen, 2017) ugotovljenega, da stopnja zaznanega tveganja pri uporabnikih in predhodna viktimizacija negativno vplivata na uporabo kibernetskega prostora, predlagamo izvajanje ukrepov na naslednjih področjih:…”

Approaches to Solving Specific Safety Issues in the Territory of Murska Sobota Police Directorate

“…S tem se pomembno zmanjša ogroženost in zagreni življenje kibernetskim kriminalcem. Da bi se izognili negativnemu učinku (Riek in Böhme, 2014;Virtanen, 2017) ugotovljenega, da stopnja zaznanega tveganja pri uporabnikih in predhodna viktimizacija negativno vplivata na uporabo kibernetskega prostora, predlagamo izvajanje ukrepov na naslednjih področjih: Pravo o prekrških je v slovenskem pravnem redu sestavljeno iz splošnega in posebnega dela. Medtem ko so določbe posebnega dela razpršene po zakonskih in podzakonskih besedilih, v katerih so opisi posameznih prekrškov, je splošni del enotno zakonodajno urejen z enim zakonom o prekrških (»Zakon o prekrških, [ZP-1]«, 2011).…”