Cyber Bullying in the Netherlands: A Criminological Perspective
Keywords
Cyber bullying
Adolescents
Cyber Crime
Criminological Theory
Interrelation Online Offline
Features Online Environment
Perspective of Youth.
Publication details
| Year: | 2016 |
| DOI: | 10.5281/zenodo.55055 |
| Issued: | 2016 |
| Language: | English |
| Volume: | 9 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Start Page: | 144 |
| End Page: | 161 |
| Editors: | |
| Authors: | Kerstens J.; Veenstra S. |
| Type: | Journal article |
| Journal: | International Journal of Cyber Criminology |
| Topics: | Social mediation; Wellbeing |
| Sample: | "For this cross-sectional study, data was used from Youth & Cybersafety, a 4-year Dutch research project on online victimization and perpetration among 6,299 youth aged 10 to 18 years (2009-2013) commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. The research project Youth & Cybersafety was conducted by the Cybersafety Research Group of the NHL University of Applied Sciences and the Police Academy in the Netherlands. The questionnaire was developed on the basis of feedback from youth (n=25, divided over 4 focus groups) and tested in a pilot study (n=442) for validity and reliability and, to refine question wording, sequence and questionnaire length. In total, 6,433 participants filled in the online questionnaire. Validity checks for nonsensical answers resulted in the removal of 134 respondents of our dataset. The data-analysis was based on 6,299 completed questionnaires filled in by participants (51.2% male) attending primary school (29.3%) and secondary schools (70.7%). The age range of the sample was 11 to 18 years (M =13.0, SD =1.9). Data were collected between January 2011 and April 2011. Parental consent and youth assent were obtained before participation. The response rate of our study was 96.4%." (Kerstens & Veenstra, 2016, p. 147-148) |
Abstract
It is assumed that the online world creates new possibilities for criminal behaviour. Only recently criminologists started the debate on the applicability of traditional criminological theories to cyber crime offending. Analyses based on a Dutch survey among 6,299 adolescents (50.9 % male), aged from 10 to 18 (M = 13.0, SD = 1.87) indicate that cyber bullying behaviour is not only strongly interwoven with traditional bullying behaviours, but also is affected by the distinct features of the online environment. The findings give support to the suggestion that the aetiological schema to explain cyber bullying should postulate the interaction between individual characteristics, distinct features of the online environment and the interaction between offline and online social realities.
Outcome
"Perpetration of cyber bullying occurs– in contrast to public perception – markedly less
frequent than traditional bullying." (Kerstens & Veenstra, 2016, p. 156)
"Multinomial regression analysis revealed that bullying behaviour is significantly related
to having low self-control." (Kerstens & Veenstra, 2016, p. 156)
"The relationship is not as strong for cyber bullying as it is for
traditional bullying." (Kerstens & Veenstra, 2016, p. 156)
"The multinomial regression analysis further revealed that there is a strong connection
between online disinhibition and cyber bullying. For perpetrators who exclusively bully
online, online disinhibition is the strongest predictor of bullying behaviour." (Kerstens & Veenstra, 2016, p. 157)
"Our study revealed that youth who are a perpetrator of bullying are often a victim of
bullying, both online and offline." (Kerstens & Veenstra, 2016, p. 157)