Author

Kevin J. Earl

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Comments

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Criminal Justice in the College of Graduate Studies at Bridgewater State University, 2015

Degree Program

Criminal Justice

Degree Type

Master of Science

Abstract

Youths can experience bullying victimization through many sources. Technology and social networking sites have provided another source in which youths can experience bullying victimization, commonly called "cyber-bullying" (Hinduja and Patchin, 2009). The purpose of this study is to apply Routine Activities Theory (Cohen and Felson, 1979) as a main theoretical framework to examine cyber and nonphysical bullying victimization. Nonphysical bullying victimization refers to having been made fun of, called names, having had rumors spread, been threatened, pushed/shoved/tripped, etc., forced to do unwanted things, excluded, or having had property destroyed. Data were derived from the 2013 school crime supplement of NCVS, which was distributed among a nationally representative sample of youth ages 12-18 years of age, for delineating the pattern of cyber and nonphysical bullying victimization. A negative binomial regression analysis was conducted in order to examine the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. Results from this study indicate that cyber and nonphysical bullying victimization have similarities and differences reflecting routine activities theoretical elements.

Committee/Advisor(s)

Kyung-shick Choi (chair)

Robert Grantham

Khadija Monk

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