Cyber offending predictors and pathways in middle adolescence: Evidence from the UK Millennium Cohort Study

Abstract

Despite the pervasiveness of cyber crime victimisation, knowledge is limited regarding the prevalence, characteristics and pathways of offenders. The present study examines predictors of self-reported engagement in cyber crime in middle adolescence in a large (N = 13,277) longitudinal dataset from the UK Millennium Cohort Study. We adopted an ecological systems approach to examine a range of multicausal, intersecting factors across individual, familial, psychosocial and environmental systems. The overall prevalence of self-reported cyber offending (account hacking or the deployment of viruses) was 5.6% at age 14 and 3.8% at age 17, although persistence over time by the same individuals was relatively low (1.1%). Significant predictors of cyber offending at age 17 were being male, domestic violence between parents, low parental monitoring, low wellbeing, self-harm, exclusion from school, spending more time online gaming, participating in offline leisure activities, and engaging in serious violence (weapon carrying or use), assault, and cyber crime at age 14. Findings indicate that young cyber offenders are often males and those who have experienced a range of risk factors that are connected to poorer wellbeing and engaging in multiple risky/offending behaviours. Implications for theory, policy and practice are discussed.