Gendered Nature of Cyber Victimization as a Mechanism of Social Control

Abstract

This research used a deductive post-hoc statistical design and Statistics Canada’s 2009 General Social Survey on victimization to explore the social control function of cyber victimization and determine whether this is gendered. Social control was operationalized as a composite measure of self-responsibilization. A multiple regression analysis identified predictors of social control and additional multiple regression models were used for a gender specific examination of social control. A total of 14 predictor variables were entered into three blocks: cyber victimization; sociodemographic characteristics; and violent victimization in physical space. The results reveal that cyber victimization remains a significant predictor of social control in addition to gender, a number of other sociodemographic characteristics of respondents, and physical space victimization types. The findings suggest that the theory of social control, which has been applied to violence against women in physical space, can also be applied to cyber space victimizations. This study also provides insights into the compound effects of physical space and cyber space victimizations on women and identifies implications for policy, methods, and theories for addressing and examining violence against women in cyberspace.