Victimization

Victimization

Overview of Victimization in relation to cyber crime: [1]There are also four main categories of loss or harm that crime victims can experience involving physical, financial, and/or emotional harm. Physical harm includes death and bodily injury caused by gunshot or stab wounds, bruises, cuts, broken bones, and so forth. Emotional harm includes loss of mental health or psychological impairment as a result of the crime attributable to anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, anger, and fear of future victimization among other issues. Financial harm includes theft of money or other forms of financial assets (a common goal in several types of cybercrime), as well as damage to property such as computer hardware or software. Financial harm may involve direct (''out-of-pocket'') expenses (e.g., to pay medical bills and repair or replace damaged property) or indirect expenses as the result of purchasing crime prevention items such as anti-malware software and support services to prevent future cybercrimes. Other indirect expenses could include legal costs, increased insurance rates, and lost wages from time out of work. Social and/or professional harm may also occur as the result of cybercrimes, as when a company must go out of business after losing all their customer and financial account information in a computer hacking incident, or when a student is excluded from her friends as the result of cyber bullying. In general, primary crime victims may experience physical, emotional, financial, and either social or professional harm; secondary victims may experience emotional, financial, and either social or professional harm; and tertiary victims as members of society at large may experience financial harm.

Resources

Notes and References

1. By Sara E. Berg

See Also

• Types of Cybercrime
• Cybercriminal

Further Reading

Bloombecker, J. (1985, October 21). Hackers erode confidence about privacy of data. USA Today; Gulotta, G. (1984, January). New approaches to victimology. International Review of Applied Psychology, 33(1), 87–95; Kerber, R. (2007, January 18). TJX credit data stolen; wide impact feared. Boston Globe, A1; McQuade, S.C. (2006). Understanding and managing cybercrime. Boston: Allyn & Bacon; Tomz, J.E., & McGillis, D. (1997, February). Serving crime victims (2nd ed.). U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.