Major
Criminal Justice
Anticipated Graduation Year
2024
Access Type
Open Access
Abstract
This study contributes to understanding victim-offender overlap (Berg & Mulford, 2020) in cyber fraud scams. Adults (N = 476) completed a Qualtrics online survey. Online peer encouragement and perceiving themselves as a target were consistent predictors across all three measures of victim-offender overlap and predicted perpetrating cyber fraud scams after controlling for low self-control and prior victimization. The offender first group were more likely to see themselves as a target and feel vengeful and were less likely to experience emotional distress or feel defeated than the victim first group. Social learning and emotions contribute to the victim-offender overlap.
Faculty Mentors & Instructors
Loretta J. Stalans, Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Department of Psychology
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Victim-Offender Overlap: Risky Spaces, Deviant Subculture, and Revenge Motives in Committing Fraud in Cyberspace
This study contributes to understanding victim-offender overlap (Berg & Mulford, 2020) in cyber fraud scams. Adults (N = 476) completed a Qualtrics online survey. Online peer encouragement and perceiving themselves as a target were consistent predictors across all three measures of victim-offender overlap and predicted perpetrating cyber fraud scams after controlling for low self-control and prior victimization. The offender first group were more likely to see themselves as a target and feel vengeful and were less likely to experience emotional distress or feel defeated than the victim first group. Social learning and emotions contribute to the victim-offender overlap.