The Effects of Self-control on the Cyber Victim-Offender Overlap

Increasingly, the overlap between victims and offenders has received empirical attention with regard to traditional forms of deviance. More recently, the growth of cyber offending has led to a need to examine whether traditional criminological theories can be used to explain these crimes in the same manner as traditional offenses. However, limited attention has been given to victim-offender overlap in cyber-offending. The current study uses a sample of American college students to examine the influence of self-control on cyber offending, cyber victimization, and the cyber victim-offender overlap. The results indicate that low self-control significantly predicts participation in cyber offending as well as cyber victim-offending, but has a weak relationship with cyber victimization. Interestingly, associating with deviant cyber peers was a significant predictor across all models. Results are discussed in the context of the existing literature.