What leads intention of individual to cyber vandalism?

 Low Self-Control or Impulsivity

Gottfredson and Hirschi’s (1990) self-control theory says individuals with low self-control will find crime tempting. There are also suggested a relationship between impulsivity and violence which applies to the cyber world leading to cyber vandalism.

 Psychopathic and Machiavellian Traits

A study of online data collected from 418 U.S. residents shown 5.6% reported enjoying trolling behaviour online. Some say that they are motivated by boredom, attention-seeking, and revenge at the same time having pleasure from causing damage. One specific trait of psychopathy is a lack of empathy (Hare, 2003), which is the inability to experience the emotions of another person or to comprehend the emotions of another person.

 Internalizing Traits

Such traits include depression or shyness. When a person is having those traits they may want to grab attention from the outside world. Some may even say it is to fulfill their self-esteem.

 Social Control and Social Learning Theories

A study from Ang (2015) found that  poor emotional bonds with parents and a lack of parental monitoring relates to cyber aggression. However, other studies say that it is the influence of peers. At the same time, exposure to violence in the media is also associated with concurrent reports of serious violent behaviour (Ybarra, et al., 2008).

 Propaganda/ Publicity

Some vandals do such thing to spread their propaganda whereas others for the sake of publicity. By inserting information about anything into any website, it will automatically grab server’s attention. Moreover, it is free.