청소년 휴대전화 피해와 일반이론 적용

A Test of General Theory for Youth's Cell Phone Victimization

This study tests Gottfredson and Hirschi's general theory of crime for explaining youth's cell phone victimization. This study uses both low self-control and opportunity factors for explaining it and tests their independent and interaction effects. Using data from 640 male and female middle school student in Seoul, 2008, result shows that the most frequently types of victimization are receiving spam mail and malicious language violence. Results reveal that both low self-control and opportunity factors(level of exposure of individual information and the number of cell phone delinquent peers) have significant effects on victimization. In addition, it is revealed that victimization is explained by prior experience of cell phone delinquency. However, results show that the interaction effects between low self-control and opportunity factors are not significant, which is inconsistent in general theory. It is also founded that the effect of low self-control is largely mediated by opportunity factors. The policy implications are discussed.