ABSTRACT
This research relates to computer crimes that compromise data and financial security, namely, hacking and online fraud, focusing on offenders’ perceptions of victims. Very little is known about those who commit computer crimes. This is despite the increase in offending rates that have corresponded with the wider availability of computers to the general public from the 1980s and the introduction of the World Wide Web in 1991 (Moschovitis et al., 1999). These technological advances have increased the reach of offenders as well as the vulnerability of potential victims. Cybercrime offenders constitute a hidden and hard-to-access population. This qualitative analysis draws from interviews with self-identified offenders, law enforcement officers who investigate these offenses, and court documents.
