Abstract
The technological changes of the last 30 years have facilitated a substantial increase in cybercrimes. The impact of these crimes on victims has not been the subject of extensive research. This paper based upon a British Home Office funded study draws upon the experience of 52 victims of computer misuse crime, which can be broadly grouped under hacking and computer virus related crimes. Drawing upon the interviews with these victims the researchers identified a continuum of three components founded upon the seriousness of the incident and the impact on the victim. These three categories included: incidents of inconvenience, crimes of inconvenience and serious crimes of personal violation or significant financial loss or fear of. The paper provides depth accounts of 15 of the 52 victims interviewed to illustrate this continuum.
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Button, M., Blackbourn, D., Sugiura, L., Shepherd, D., Kapend, R., Wang, V. (2021). Victims of Cybercrime: Understanding the Impact Through Accounts. In: Weulen Kranenbarg, M., Leukfeldt, R. (eds) Cybercrime in Context. Crime and Justice in Digital Society, vol I. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60527-8_9
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