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What are the predictors of fear of cybercrime? An empirical study

Thu, September 12, 9:30 to 10:45am, Faculty of Law, University of Bucharest, Floor: Basement, Room 0.10

Abstract

Fear of crime is a hot topic in the criminological field. Nevertheless, little research has examined the extent, nature, and determinants of fear of cybercrime. Even though the existent studies present relevant insights, they tend to rely on specific groups of cybercrimes (e.g., Roberts, 2013; Cook et al., 2023; Abdulai, 2020; Choi et al., 2021), barely comparing different types of cybercrimes and their determinants. Therefore, the present study takes a step further in the field of fear of cybercrime, since it explores whether the determinants of fear of interpersonal cybercrime (fears of cyberbullying and cyberstalking) are different from those that explain the fear of property cybercrime (fears of online consumer fraud, online identity theft, and malware discovery). To do so, it tests the influence of individual and routine activities variables in the explanation of the fears of interpersonal and property cybercrimes. In total, 726 individuals (70% women, M age= 27 years) answered an online self-reported survey. Regarding the fear of property cybercrime, the results showed that older individuals, with higher scores of economic insecurities, greater levels of offline property fear, and adopt more online risky behaviors present higher levels of fear of property cybercrime. The strongest predictor of this dependent variable was fear of offline property crime. Concerning the fear of interpersonal cybercrime, we found that higher levels of economic insecurities, greater offline property and interpersonal fear, capable guardianship, computer skills and risky behaviors predicted this dependent variable. The strongest predictor was offline interpersonal fear. These results contribute to the research in this field, showing that online fear is differently explained according to the types of cybercrimes.

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