Young People and Online Computer Crime: A Critique of the White Collar Crime Thesis

• In Event: Theoretical Approaches to Cyber Crime

Abstract

In this paper we develop a longitudinal examination of young peoples’ involvement in online computer crime – a topic which has received scarce criminological attention. Although online computer crime has often been considered an example of white collar crime, we identify problems with this claim. Using measures from a nationally representative study of 4,500 young people aged 10-25 years we examine the trajectories of offending over three waves of data. In contrast to previous studies, we identify that the core cohort of young offenders involved in several types of online computer crime are actually more likely to be male, active offenders involved in conventional criminality, with delinquent friends and from troubled family backgrounds. Furthermore, we also examine the trajectories of online computer crime offending over time to assess patterns of onset, escalation, persistence and desistence.

Authors

• Daniel McCarthy, University of Surrey

• Ian Brunton-Smith, University of Surrey