An examination of the contemporaneous co-occurrence of on-line and off-line delinquency

• In Event: Youth pathways into cybercrime: Results from the South Australia Digital Youth Project

Abstract

Despite the fact that the internet has become a ubiquitous medium for social engagement, surprisingly little research has investigated the changing nature and extent of delinquency in an online context. Beyond cyber-bullying, little attention has been paid to investigating whether and to what extent delinquency in an online context parallels, or not, delinquency in the real world. This study aimed to fill this gap in the literature using a self-report survey of 1,793 grade six students (approximately 13 years of age) from schools across the state of South Australia. Four unique profiles of cyber-deviance among the students were compared with a range of self-reported delinquency markers. Importantly, the results revealed these profiles had differential relationships with various types of self-reported delinquency in the real world. The results are discussed in the context of adolescent behavioural pathways that involve overt, covert, authority conflict and risk-taking behaviours in the real world.

Authors

• Jesse Cale, University of New South Wales

• Russell Brewer, University of Adelaide

• Tyson Whitten, University of New South Wales

• Thomas Holt, Michigan State University

• Andrew John Goldsmith, Flinders University