Theories of Cybercrime

Theories of Cybercrime in United States

Theories of Cybercrime

Overview of Theories of Cybercrime in relation to cyber crime: [1] Known generally as choice theory, this explanation of crime asserts that people commit crime because they chose to and that they are deterred only by the certainty, swiftness, and severity of punishment. Suppose, for instance, in this era of cybercrime that a person understands that hacking into a computer system or exceeding their network permissions is against the law, that if do this they are likely to be swiftly identified, prosecuted, and severely punished with fines and/or imprisonment, but they choose to hack into a computer system anyway. In that case their actions could be explained with choice theory. Although choice theory came about through the thinking and writing of Cesare Beccaria in the mid-seventeenth century, it is still widely relied on to explain why people break laws against many types of traditional crime and cybercrime.

Resources

Notes and References

  1. By Samuel C. McQuade, III

See Also

  • Types of Cybercrime
  • Cybercriminal

Further Reading

Akers, R.L. (1998). Social learning and social structure: A general theory of crime and deviance. Boston: Northeastern University Press; Jacoby, J.E. (ed.). (1994). Classics of criminology (2nd ed.). Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, Inc.; McQuade, S.C. (2006). Theories of IT-enabled abuse and crime. In Understanding and managing cybercrime (Chap. 5). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc.; Rogers, M.K. (2001). A social learning theory and moral disengagement analysis of criminal computer behavior: An exploratory study. PhD diss., University of Manitoba, Winnepeg Manitoba, Canada. Available at http://homes.cerias.purdue.edu/~mkr/cybercrime-thesis.pdf; Schmalleger, F. (2004). Criminology today: An integrative introduction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson–Prentice Hall; Siegel, L.J. (2000). Criminology (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing; Skinner, W.F., & Fream, A.M. (1997). A social learning theory analysis of computer crime among college students. The Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 34(4), 495–519.


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