Can low self-control help with the understanding of the software piracy problem?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Computer crime—specifically, software piracy—is growing, and no research in criminology examines whether low self-control can help us understand the behavior. This study examines the link that Gottfredson and Hirschi's (1990) idea of low self-control has with software piracy. Using a nonrandom sample of college students and measures of low self-control, software pirating peers, software pirating attitudes, and moral beliefs toward software piracy, the findings show that low self-control has a link with software piracy. This finding expands the scope of self-control theory and provides an understanding of why the behavior occurs.