| Summary: | With the development of information and communication technologies, and the increasingly widespread use of the Internet, the crimes committed in the cyber universe have also been growing in recent decades, gaining greater social visibility. Cyberstalking is one of the multiple crimes committed online and, in addition to being a complex phenomenon, involving processes, dynamics and various impacts, it is difficult to study, not only because many of the victims do not disclose it, but also because of the lack of consensus in the definition and characterization of this concept. In Portugal, the investigation of this phenomenon is very limited. With our study we intend to contribute to brims of information about this phenomenon, seeking to characterize its occurrence in Portuguese university students. Data collection was done through the development and application of an online questionnaire, including questions on the incidence and characteristics of these conducts, characteristic of both the victim and the cyberstalking offender, as well as the interactions between them, if there was a demand for help from the victims in order to cease these acts, among others. A sample of 515 individuals participated in this study, 71.1% female, 28.2% male and 0.8% not identifying themselves with a binary gender, with an average age of 23.49 years. It was found that most participants had never heard of cyberstalking or had only heard occasional references to the phenomenon, and only 19.2% reported having heard about it frequently. Regarding the experience of cyberstalking behaviours, or online harassment, 52.6% of the sample reported that they had never experienced these behaviours, 30.5% answered not sure and 16.9% revealed having already experienced such behaviours. Most individuals who experienced cyberstalking behaviour (53.7%) assumed themselves as victims. It was possible to observe an association between gender and self-recognition as a victim and with some cyberstalking behaviours experienced. The most reported victimization behaviours were "Sent me a lot of messages, even without getting a response" (87.8%) and "They got actively involved in my social networks" (91.1%).
|
|---|