The General Nature of Online and Off-Line Offending Among College Students

Abstract

While online offending has been found to be a specialized phenomenon, most literature on criminality indicates that offending behavior over the life course is of a general nature, which is consistent with Gottfredson and Hirschi’s general theory of crime. Utilizing data collected from a large sample of 502 undergraduate college students, this study examined the extent to which college students commit off-line offending as compared with online offending. Results from a series of bivariate and multivariate analyses indicated support for conceptualizing online offending as part of a more general offending repertoire rather than as a specialty. Detailed findings, study limitations, and implications for both criminal career research and the specialization debate are also discussed.