The role of gender in predicting the willingness to engage in digital piracy among college students

Abstract

Scholars have provided increased attention toward the issue of digital piracy in recent years; however, few studies have focused on the issue of gender in predicting digital piracy. This study explores the role of gender in predicting college students’ willingness to participate in varying forms of digital piracy (n = 585). The findings suggest that gender is not directly related to digital piracy when controlling for other factors. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the impact from existing theories of crime (social learning, self‐control, techniques of neutralization, and microanomie) are equivalent across genders. A discussion is provided in the context of future theory development and in the development of policy implications geared toward curtailing digital piracy.