University of Malta students’ experience with criminal activity on Facebook

Abstract

This research analysed the experience students attending the University of Malta encountered in relation to criminal activity on the social networking site, Facebook. The aim of this dissertation is to answer three research questions: 1. What types of crimes are experienced by University of Malta students? 2. What is the frequency of these crimes? 3. How are authorities, such as the Malta Police Force, handling these reports? These three questions are answered by conducting a qualitative and quantitative study. In the qualitative part, an interview with the Inspector of the Cyber Crime Unit sheds light on what types of reports are investigated, how these are handled as well as any challenges faced during investigation. The quantitative part of this research gathers and analyses results from an online survey sent to every student by the registrar regarding their experience on Facebook and how they dealt with it. These two research method are then discussed in a compare-and-contrast approach to answer the research questions.