Beyond “The Cybercriminal”: Understanding Diversity in Cyber Offenders

Podcast: Cybercrimeology · Cybercrimeology

Opublikowano: 2026-02-01

Notes: Dr Bekkers describes his academic pathway from psychology to criminology and explains why his research focus has consistently been on offenders and their behaviour rather than on offences or technologies.Cybercrime offenders are often portrayed as a homogeneous group of highly skilled hackers, but research shows they are a heterogeneous population with distinct motivations, skills, and pathways into crime.A key distinction can be made between financially motivated cybercrime, such as online fraud, and more technically complex cyber-dependent crimes such as hacking, DDoS attacks, and website defacement.Financially motivated cybercrime offenders often resemble traditional offline offenders and...