Shannon Pearce

Honors in Criminology and Criminal Justice

Major: Criminology and Criminal Justice Minors: Psychology and Sociology

Supervisors: Randy LaGrange, Criminology and Criminal Justice

Cyber Bullying in the 21st Century: Causes and Consequences

With the growing popularity of the World Wide Web in the past decade, digital communication has become the back bone of societies across the globe. A consequence of the expanding technology in modern times is the creation of new crimes and the need for new laws and enforcement efforts. The anonymous world cyberspace has created new avenues for harassment, a form of electronic torture lawmakers have recently termed as cyber bullying. This honors study seeks to examine the causes, consequences and penalties of cyber bullying. Additionally, an original survey was distributed and analyzed to research the prevalence of cyber bullying among students at UNC Wilmington. Several hypotheses derived from the existing literature are tested on the data using SPSS. The paper concludes with some suggestions for policy and future research.