Abstract
In our highly digitalized society, cybercrime has become a common crime. However, because research into cybercriminals is in its infancy, our knowledge about cybercriminals is still limited. One of the main considerations is whether cybercriminals have higher intellectual capabilities than traditional criminals or even the general population. Although criminological studies clearly show that traditional criminals have lower intellectual capabilities, little is known about the relationship between cybercrime and intelligence. The current study adds to the literature by exploring the relationship between CITO-test scores and cybercrime in the Netherlands. The CITO final test is a standardized test for primary school students - usually taken at the age of 11 or 12 - and highly correlated with IQ-scores. Data from Statistics Netherlands were used to compare CITO-test scores of 143 apprehended cybercriminals with those of 143 apprehended traditional criminals and 143 non-criminals, matched on age, sex, and country of birth. Ordinary Least Squares regression analyses were used to compare CITO test scores between cybercriminals, traditional criminals, and non-criminals. Additionally, a discordant sibling design was used to control for unmeasured confounding by family factors. Findings reveal that cybercriminals have significantly higher CITO test scores compared to traditional criminals and significantly lower CITO test scores compared to non-criminals.
1. Introduction
Cybercriminals abuse the possibilities of information technology (IT) within our highly digitalized society to commit criminal offences. Recent victim surveys show that cybercrime has become a common crime (Statistics Netherlands, 2018, 2020). There has been considerable debate in the psychological and criminological community about definitions, concepts and classifications of cybercrimes and cybercriminals (see, for an overview, McGuire, 2020), but usually two types of cybercrimes are distinguished: ‘cyber dependent crimes’ and ‘cyber enabled crimes’ (McGuire & Dowling, 2013). The first category contains ‘new’ types of offences that target IT, such as hacking databases with credit card credentials and taking down websites or networks. The second category includes traditional crimes in which IT plays an important role in the modus operandi of the criminals. Examples include internet fraud and cyber stalking. Moreover, crimes where IT does not play a substantial role for the commission of the offense (e.g., violence, burglary and theft) are referred to as traditional crimes in this article.
