Measurement of Cybercrime Severity: A Victims’ Perspective

Despite the increasing incidents of cybercrimes and their impact on human society, there has been little attention on generating actionable information from cybercrimes, particularly to support investigative action. This research takes the perspective of the victim, who suffers the ultimate adverse impact of cybercrimes. Following prior research on building crime typology and severity, we first classify cybercrimes hierarchically by mapping a set of reported cybercrimes to the formal crime types defined in the Indian Penal Code, IT Act 2000 and the amendments thereof. The crime content of cybercrimes, separated from the technology, would thus give clarity of purpose to stakeholders involved in cybercrime investigation and reporting. Furthermore, we are developing a measurement process to score cybercrimes based on their severity. For this, we will conduct a study and select subjects more than 100 in numbers such as police officers, judges, and university and law students from the southern India. To validate the results, we will perform consistency checks. This process includes pilot testing, establishing baseline scores, formal scoring by various subject groups, and conducting tests for reliability and validity. In order to establish internal consistency, we use two scales, a 1-11 interval scale and a ratio scale with a standard cybercrime item for scoring. To establish validity and reliability through correlations, we engage four different subject groups related to cybercrimes. This research contributes to the IS body of knowledge in cybercrimes by developing a measurement process to generate actionable information.