Examining Sexual Crime Severity in China: A General-specific Model on Sex Offending Against Adults.

Sexual violence severity has long been viewed as a critical factor of sex offending. However, the criminological viewpoints on sexual violence severity have not received much attention, especially in the Chinese context. By integrating general-criminogenic (inhibitory mechanisms) and specific sex offending (learning mechanisms and contextual factors) perspectives, the current study links the propositions of social control (bonds) theory, self-control theory, differential association theory, and the integrated theory of sex offending, proposing a general-specific model for sexual violence severity. Survey data was collected from 250 Chinese offenders who committed sexual offenses against adults. The mediation analysis found that deviant peer association fully mediates the effects of social control and low self-control on sexual violence severity. The moderation analysis showed that substance abuse exaggerates the impact of deviant peer association on sexual violence severity, while sex purchasing mitigates this relationship. This general-specific model may expand our current understanding of sexual violence severity from both criminological and psychological perspectives.

We Are All Victims: Questionable Content and Collective Victimisation in the Digital Age.

Traditionally, the idea of being a victim is associated with a crime, accident, trickery or being duped. With the advent of globalisation and rapid growth in the information technology sector, the world has opened itself to numerous vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities range from individual-centric privacy issues to collective interests in the form of a nation's political and economic interests. While we have victims who can identify themselves as victims, there are also victims who can barely identify themselves as victims, and there are those who do not realise that they have become victims. Misinformation, disinformation, fake news and other methods of spreading questionable content can be regarded as a new and increasingly widespread type of collective victimisation. This paper, drawing on recent examples from India, examines and analyses the rationale and modus operandi-both methods and types-that lead us to regard questionable content as a new form of collective victimisation.

Taking Justice Into Their Own Hands: Predictors of Netilantism Among Cyber Citizens in Hong Kong.

This research examined the characteristics and predicting indicators of netizens which contribute to "Human Flesh Searching" and internet vigilantism. Human Flesh Searching (HFS) is a form of collective online behavior where netizens contribute information to social media and/or networking platforms about a certain event or a target individual or group to achieve what they regard as justice. It has been used to identify and investigate crime. Some netizens go further and take justice into their own hands by punishing alleged criminals and deviants through online shaming. Using the results of a survey conducted in Hong Kong, the research found both gender and time spent online are not significant variables to predict netizens' intention to contribute to HFS. A positive attitude toward HFS was the strongest predictor of HFS intention. Vigilantism was also a strong predictor of HFS intention. Vigilantism not only affects HFS intention directly, but also indirectly through a positive attitude on HFS. Fairness might negatively influence people's HFS intention and attitude toward HFS; however, this influence was found to be weak in the present study. Social Justice might not affect HFS intention directly, yet it might exert its effect via a positive attitude toward HFS. That is, netizens who intend to contribute to HFS are those who have less confidence in the criminal justice system and believe highly that people should take justice into their own hands.

Internet Vigilantism: Attitudes and Experiences of University Students Toward Cyber Crowdsourcing in Hong Kong.

With the development of the Internet, Internet vigilantism (netilantism) has emerged as a new phenomenon in recent years. Although there are several qualitative studies explaining netilantism, there is little empirical research on public perceptions of netilantism. This article aims to outline Hong Kong university students' general perception of netilantism and investigate the differences between different roles in netilantism. By using empowerment theory as the theoretical framework, we will investigate whether Internet vigilantes (netilantes) (a) perceive the criminal justice system as effective, (b) possess high levels of self-efficacy in the cyber world, and (c) tend to believe netilantism can achieve social justice. Findings support the proposition that human flesh search engine is an empowerment tool for the netilante enabling him or her to achieve his goal of social justice. Different roles in netilantism (i.e., bystander, netilante, victim, and none of the above roles) have different perceptions of netilantism and the criminal justice system. The results will be explained by studying two representative cases of netilantism-the "Government Official Molestation" case and the "Cat Abuse in Shun Tin Village" case from China and Hong Kong, respectively.