Block? Delete? All of the above? The self-protective behaviors of young adult cyberstalking victims

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand the self-protective behaviors of young adult cyberstalking victims and the factors that impact adoption of such behaviors.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used a sample of 880 young adults (18–25 years of age) who had experienced cyberstalking victimization within the previous 12 months. Data were collected through an online self-report survey hosted on Qualtrics from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk workers.

Findings

Results revealed that three-quarters of cyberstalking victims engaged in at least one form of self-protective behavior. The most commonly adopted self-protective behavior was blocking unwanted communications only (29%), while 40% of cyberstalking victims noted engaging in multiple forms of self-protective behaviors. While results varied across models, findings revealed that incident characteristics and respondent characteristics impacted the likelihood of engaging in self-protective behaviors after a cyberstalking victimization experience.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature examining the self-protective behaviors adopted by cyberstalking victims, which can shed light on other forms of cyber abuse and help explain victims’ low reporting rates to official sources (e.g. law enforcement).

Citation

Fissel, E.R. and Lee, J.R. (2024), "Block? Delete? All of the above? The self-protective behaviors of young adult cyberstalking victims", Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 301-315. https://doi.org/10.1108/JACPR-03-2024-0891