Risk perception in digital contexts: questionnaire and pilot study

Abstract

Fear of crime and risk perceptions related to crime are major topics of research in disciplines such as Criminology, but mainly in relation to the risk that street crime poses. Nowadays virtual settings are as familiar as the real ones for an increasing number of citizens worldwide. Cybercrime has become an objective risk and a source of worry, but fear and risk assessment have not been extensively studied yet. In this report, we present the results of a research developed in the University of the Basque Country for developing a questionnaire for measuring risk perception in digital contexts. We also offer the results of the pilot study for testing the psychometric properties of the questionnaire and discuss these first findings as well as future lines of research in this area.