Young people as victims of crime on the internet: A population-based study in Finland

Abstract

This study investigates cybercrime, which has become a significant phenomenon within the last two decades. Being a victim of fraud, defamation or harassment online concerns, younger age groups who are active Internet users. A population-based cross-sectional survey collected from 15 to 74 year olds in Finland (n = 46,139) is used as data. The first analysis section assesses whether the younger age group (15–24 year olds) is more likely to be exposed to cybercrime than older age groups. The second analysis section delves into what kinds of risk factors are associated with the exposure to Internet crime among young people aged 15–24. Descriptive analysis and multinomial logistic regression analysis are used as methods. The results show that young people are more likely to be victims of cybercrime even when other factors were adjusted for. Besides age, other factors including gender, education, economic status, and violent victimization are associated with cybercrime victimization. The analysis conducted on 15–24 year olds shows that participation in online communities and violent victimization were associated with cybercrime victimization. Good offline social networks were a protective factor against cybercrime victimization among females. Young cybercrime victims were more likely to be worried about future victimization. Our findings highlight the importance of understanding both psychosocial risk factors offline and patterns of risky online behavior. The risk of cybercrime victimization is related to the problems that young people may face in the offline everyday life.

Keywords:

• Internet
• youth
• crime
• victimization

RQ1:	=	Are younger respondents more often victims of cybercrime than older respondents?
RQ2:	=	What kinds of risk factors are associated with the exposure to the cybercrime among young people?