Digital Exposure and Juvenile Crime: Evidence from Dynamic Panel Analysis in Thailand

This study examines the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) alongside crucial socioeconomic indicators—government, education, and income levels—on juvenile crime in Thailand’s 77 provinces in response to prominent empirical limitations on digital variables in emerging criminological models. Using an unbalanced provincial panel dataset covering 2020 to 2024, analysis is done using a two-step System Generalized Method of Moments (System GMM) estimation approach that effectively captures endogeneity, criminal behaviour persistence, and heterogeneity in Thailand’s provinces. Empirical evidence shows that there are considerable positive relationships between adolescent delinquency and the use of the internet (0.116, p < 0.01), thereby confirming fears about risks related to more adolescent online use. Higher levels of school achievement have been shown to effectively inhibit criminal behaviour (−18.95, p < 0.01). In addition, better governance by institutional openness is positively related to incidence rates for juvenile crime (3.366, p < 0.01), conceivably indicating higher detection rates and reportability over higher crime rates. This study is the first to use Thailand’s province-level data employing System GMM to contribute to digital criminology. This explains the complex dual purpose of digital infrastructure as both an avenue for facilitating illegal conduct and preventing it. Therefore, research supports interventionist approaches focusing on overall digital literacy efforts and education investments as an essential mechanism for reducing juvenile delinquency.