Peer Cybervictimization Among University Students in Bangladesh: Institutional Disciplinary Body (IDB), Victim Attitude and Reporting

• In Event: Preventing and Addressing Cyber Victimization

Abstract

Research on cybervictimization of Bangladeshi students is scarce, but the research that does exist suggests a high prevalence of victimization followed by low extent of reporting. None of the extant research exclusively studied peer cybervictimization (PCV) in relation to victims’ attitude towards the university authority, hereinafter the institutional disciplinary body or IDB, and reporting thereto. As per the added propositions of Routine Activity Theory (RAT) (Felson, 1995), reporting to the IDB can potentially contribute to guardianship building by alerting students about handlers-managers in the university premises and thereby reduce peer victimization among students. Thus, victim students’ attitudes towards the IDB as relating to their reporting of PCV thereto can respond to the expected roles of handlers-managers from a cyberspace perspective. The current study seeks to apply RAT to PCV of university students in Bangladesh and assess the relationship between victims’ attitude towards IDB, supposedly an agent of deterrence under RAT, and reporting to IDB. Data were collected by an online survey questionnaire distributed via email to a body of adult university students in Bangladesh under the convenience sampling method. Findings have bearing on cyber literacy awareness among the university students and possible policy implications for university authorities in Bangladesh.

Author

• Selimul Quader, Illinois State University