Offline Consequences of Online Victimization: School Violence and Delinquency post thumbnail

Offline Consequences of Online Victimization: School Violence and Delinquency

As increasing numbers of youth embrace computer-mediated communication to meet academic and social needs, interpersonal violence directly and indirectly related to the Internet is occurring more often. Cyberbullying in particular has shot to the forefront of agendas in schools and communities due to the emotional, psychological, and even physical harm to which victims can be […]

Cyberbullying and Strain post thumbnail

Cyberbullying and Strain

One of the more popular criminological theories floating around these days suggests that individuals engage in deviance as a response to experiencing stressful life events or strain.  For example, youth who are abused at home or who break up with a serious significant other, or who move to a new town, are more at risk […]

The Cyberbully Next Door post thumbnail

The Cyberbully Next Door

I was recently talking to a colleague (who is an economist at my University) and he told me of an experience that recently happened with his daughter.  She was at a get-together at a hotel in our city where alcohol was being served. Somehow the police found out about the party and busted all of […]

Indictments Filed in Megan Meier Case post thumbnail

Indictments Filed in Megan Meier Case

Indictments were filed yesterday in the Megan Meier case. For those of you unfamiliar with the case, you can read the story here. In short, Megan Meier was the 13-year-old from Missouri who committed suicide after being cyberbullied on MySpace. To make matters worse, the offender was a fictitious 16-year-old boy who was created by […]

Teenage Girls, Physical Violence, YouTube, and our Culture post thumbnail

Teenage Girls, Physical Violence, YouTube, and our Culture

So…I’m sure by now you all have heard the news story and seen the attendant video of the cheerleader in Lakeland, Florida who was lured into a “friend’s” home and then severely beaten by that friend and other cheerleaders. All of this for basically talking smack over MySpace (cyberbullying?) about those friends. So what we […]

Cyberbullying: An Exploratory Analysis of Factors Related to Offending and Victimization post thumbnail

Cyberbullying: An Exploratory Analysis of Factors Related to Offending and Victimization

Victimization on the Internet through what has been termed cyberbullying has attracted increased attention from scholars and practitioners. Defined as “willful and repeated harm inflicted through the medium of electronic text” (Patchin & Hinduja, 2006), this negative experience not only undermines a youth’s freedom to use and explore valuable online resources, but also can result […]