A SOCIAL-LEARNING THEORY ANALYSIS OF COMPUTER CRIME AMONG COLLEGE-STUDENTS

Computer crime is a fairly new area of research in criminology and dev iance. With the exception of Hollinger; few studies have examined the occurrence of illegal computer acts and virtually none have tried to o ffer a theoretical explanation for the behavior In this article, the a uthors provide data on the lifetime, past year and past month prevalen ce of five illegal computer activities from a multistage sample (N = 5 81) of students at a southern university. The authors also examine the etiology of computer crime by testing the ability of social learning theory to explain these behaviors. Using multiple regression procedure s, they demonstrate that measures of differential association, differe ntial reinforcement and punishment, definitions, and sources of imitat ion are significantly related to computer crime. Findings from this st udy ale compared with Hollinger's data and discussed in terms of why s ocial learning theory is an appropriate and useful theoretical perspec tive for understanding why college students commit illegal computer ac ts.