Explaining Victim Impact from Cyber Abuse: An Exploratory Mixed Methods Analysis

ABSTRACT

Crime and deviance can have a significant and long-lasting effect on victims. While the literature on victim impact from traditional types of crime like robbery or assault is well established, much smaller scholarship examines the impact of online forms of deviance with only a handful of studies focusing on the experiences of adult victims. The current paper analyses the data from a sample of the U.S. adults (N= 746) using mixed methods to examine the perceived impact from different types of cyber abuse. A thematic analysis of open-ended responses identified five main types of victim impact: psychological, emotional, social, financial and positive. We also found that females, victims, who were abused by someone they knew, and who experienced multiple methods of abuse tended to experience higher impact. Besides, some methods of abuse appeared to affect victims more than others. Findings from this study contribute to our understanding of cyber abuse as a type of deviant behavior and help inform policy responses to the needs of cyber abuse victims.

Notes

¹ The World Health Organization (WHO) defines an adolescent as any person between ages 10 and 19, and young people as any persons between ages 10 and 24 (World Health Organization n.d.).

² The survey was conducted in accordance with the ethical requirements of the Human Research Ethics Committee of the host university and complied with ethics guidelines set forth by the HREC recommendations. Participants were informed that their data would be treated anonymously, no identifying information would be collected and they could withdraw from the survey at any time without providing a reason.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zarina I. Vakhitova

Dr. Zarina I. Vakhitova is a Lecturer at Monash University, Australia, specializing in cyber-criminology, victimology, and crime prevention. She has published extensively on these topics in PLOS One, Computers in Human Behaviour, International Review of Victimology, Crime Prevention and Community Safety, Crime Science, Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice and others.

Clair L. Alston-Knox

Dr. Clair L. Alston-Knox is a Senior Statistician at Predictive Analytics Group, Australia, specializing in applied statistical research. She has been working as an applied statistician for nearly 30 years focusing on applied Bayesian analysis, most recently in the area of Social and Behavioral research.

Ellen Reeves

Ellen Reeves is a Ph.D. candidate and research officer with the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre, Melbourne, Australia. Her Ph.D. research examines the unintended consequences of legislative and policy reforms for women within the civil protection order space, and she is developing an evidence base that can be used by policymakers and practitioners to ensure that practices are tailored to ensure that the rights of victim-survivors are of paramount importance.

Rob I. Mawby

Dr. Rob I. Mawby is Visiting Professor of Rural Criminology at Harper Adams University, UK. He has been a leading criminologist working in the area of victimology and policing for over 30 years during which time he has published over 100 papers and books. He was the UK representative on CEPOL’s Special Expert Committee on Police Science in the EU (2005-2007) and engaged with the EC in producing the UK reports on victims’ rights and victims’ services.