NCJ Number
170551
Journal
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency Volume: 34 Issue: 4 Dated: (November 1997) Pages: 495-518
Date Published
1997
Length
24 pages
Annotation
Five hundred eighty-one students at a southern university provided data on their involvement in five forms of computer-related crime in the past month, past year, and lifetime.
Abstract
The research also examined the causes of computer crime by testing the ability of social learning theory to explain the youths' behaviors. The participants were selected from colleges within the university that had academic departments with the highest levels of computer usage and students with broad knowledge of computer applications. The five forms of computer crime included (1) using, making, or giving another person a pirated copy of commercially sold computer software; (2) attempting to guess another's password; (3) gaining access to another person's computer account or files without permission or knowledge; (4) changing information in another person's files; and (5) writing or using a program that would destroy someone's computerized data. The data were analyzed using multiple regression procedures. Results revealed that 41.3 percent of the students reported the first form of crime, whereas 2.1 percent reported the fifth form. Males were much more likely than female students to admit committing these activities. Findings indicated that measures of differential association, differential reinforcement and punishment, definitions, and sources of imitation were significantly related to computer crime. Tables, notes, and 35 references (Author abstract modified)