Hacking and Harassment—Do They Have Something in Common? Comparing Risk Factors for Online Victimization

Abstract

Contrary to committing hacking offences, becoming a victim of hacking has received scant research attention. This article addresses risk factors for this type of crime and explores its theoretical and empirical connectedness to the more commonly studied type of cybercrime victimization: online harassment. The results show that low self-control acts as a general risk factor in two ways. First, it leads to a higher risk of experiencing either one of these two distinct types of victimization within a 1-year period. Second, cumulatively the experiences of being hacked and harassed are also more prominent among this group. However, specific online behaviors predicted specific online victimization types (e.g., using social media predicted only harassment and not hacking). The results thus shed more light on the extent to which criminological theories are applicable across different types of Internet-related crime.