I’m Watching You: Cyberstalking Behaviors of University Students in Romantic Relationships

Abstract

As technology has become an ever-present facet in the lives of young people, they have become reliant on it to form and maintain relationships. It has also helped facilitate negative relationship behaviors, such as the monitoring of romantic partners without their permission (aka cyberstalking). The purpose of this study is to investigate theoretical predictors of cyberstalking in a sample of university students by applying General Theory of Crime and Social Learning Theory. Results indicated that low self-control and deviant peer association are significant predictors of cyberstalking, specifically attempting to log-in to a person's social media, as well as social media presence and sex.

Just married: the synergy between feminist criminology and the Tripartite Cybercrime Framework

“…Marcum et al . () explained the men‐perpetrator/women‐victim structure as implicitly constituting “cyber dating abuse”, whereas other researchers (e.g., Helsper and Whitty ; Purcell et al . ) framed their findings slightly differently, as discussed above.…”

“…On the flipside, Marcum et al . () surveyed 890 university students and highlighted that men were more likely to cyber‐stalk and attempt log‐ins to their partner's social media accounts. Marcum et al .…”

“…A closer consideration suggests that Helsper and Whitty () surveyed people primarily over 30 years old (in the United Kingdom), whereas Marcum et al . () surveyed youths under 30 years old (in the United States). If the above findings (Helsper and Whitty ; Marcum et al .…”

“…If the above findings (Helsper and Whitty ; Marcum et al . ) are taken as a given, it is conceivable that gender roles and cultural obligations in society (e.g., feminine roles and the social obligations of a married woman to protect her committed relationship delicately) shaped their perceptions and behaviours regarding cyber‐stalking. The bottom line here is that age interacts with gender to provide an additional layer of explanation, which acknowledges the value of the lens of intersectionality.…”

Segurança e vitimação entre estudantes universitários na cidade do Porto

“…Os crimes sexuais são outro tipo de comportamento existente entre alguns estudantes que, dessa forma, fazem de outros vítimas. A preocupação com estas ocorrências vai sendo exteriorizada em diferentes países (Winzer, 2016), havendo ainda análises que se centram em outros crimes que ocorrem em contexto universitário, como violência e "terrorismo" no âmbito das relações íntimas (Straus & Gozjolko, 2014), cyberstalking entre casais de estudantes (Marcum, Higgins, & Nicholson, 2016), bullying (Sinkkonen, Puhakka, & Meriläinen, 2014) e cyberbullying (Xiao & Wong, 2013), agressão sexual (Winzer, 2016) além de muitos outros comportamentos violentos.…”