Demographic Variables and Risk Factors in Computer-Crime: An Empirical Assessment

The purpose of this research is to examine how demographics variables interact with factors such as online lifestyle, digital-capable guardianship, computer security management, and levels of individual computer crime victimization. The current study used a secondary data which was a self-report survey (N=204) contained items intended to measure the major constructs of routine activities theory. The findings of SEM (structural equation modeling) analysis showed that: (1) gender did not substantially influence on digital guardian factor and computer crime victimization. However, males are more likely to be engaging in online risky leisure activities such as visiting unknown Web sites, downloading free games, free music, and free movies than females. Simultaneously, males tended to update computer security, change the passwords for e-mail account, search for more effective computer security software, check the operation of computer security online, and use different passwords and user IDs for their Internet accounts than females; (2) individuals with older age are less likely to equip the number of computer security software with less duration; (3) race does not have any statistically significant impact on computer crime victimization. Lastly, the policy implications and the limitations of the current research were discussed at the last part of this study