THE ROLE OF MORALITY, SELF-CONTROL, AND ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURE, ON OFFLINE- AND ONLINE AGGRESSIVE CRIMINOGENIC BEHAVIOUR: : A QUANTITATIVE STUDY ON SITUATIONAL ACTION THEORY AND ITS APPLICABILITY IN DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEXTS

According to Wikstörm’s (2012) Situational Action Theory (SAT), engaging incriminogenic behaviour is influenced by a person’s crime propensity, such as self-control and morality. Moral rules applied to a setting, and their degree ofenforcement, are stated as crucial since individuals are in constant interaction withtheir surroundings. Criminogenic exposure, such as having criminal friends and thetime spent with friends, is according to SAT (ibid.) influential on criminogenicbehaviour. The purpose of this study was, through hypothesis testing, to investigatethe applicability of SAT based on different environmental contexts. Aggressivecriminogenic behaviour was measured through bullying. Offline- andcyberbullying corresponded to aggressive criminogenic behaviour in differentenvironmental contexts. This study found that morality, self-control, andcriminogenic exposure, were significant in relation to offline bullying. Self-controland having criminal friends were significant in relation to cyberbullying. Genderwas used as a confounding variable and showed that girls are more prone tocyberbullying than boys, and that boys were more prone to offline bullying thangirls. Testing SAT applicability by comparing online and offline criminogenicbehaviour is understudied, further research on other online criminogenic behavioursis therefore encouraged, as well as the relationship between gender and anonymityas well as their influence in SAT