A Systematic Literature Review of Routine Activity Theory’s Applicability in Cybercrimes

Abstract

Cybercrimes are increasing at an alarming rate and cause detrimental effects to the victims. Routine Activity Theory (RAT) is commonly used to understand the factors influencing cybercrime victimization. However, there have been inconsistent findings on the applicability of RAT theory. This study performs a Systematic Literature Review analysis to consolidate and provide a coherent analysis of the related studies employing RAT theory for cybercrime victimization. The articles were also differentiated based on the cybercrimes topologies being investigated; (a) cybercrime dependent (hacking and malware) and (b) cybercrime enabled (phishing, fraud and identity theft). The findings suggest that a refined specification and operationalization of RAT’S construct tailoring to the types of cybercrimes can arguably yield more accurate application and interpretation of RAT Theory in cybercrimes. Consequently, this will address the inaccurate measurement issues of some of the RATS’s constructs, leading to inconclusive effects on cybercrime victimization. In addition, there is a need for more longitudinal studies to disentangle the effect of RAT’s construct during pre and post cybercrimes. Security advocates can apply the findings of this research to formulate relevant cybercrime awareness programs. The findings also shed some insights into which groups should be targeted for different cybercrime educational and awareness programs. This study can increase the awareness among citizens in terms of their online activities, their attributes and the types of protection from becoming cybercrime victims.

Awareness of the Anti-Photo and Video Voyeurism Act of 2009 (Ra 9995) in Selected Universities in Palawan

“…Thus, RA 9995 was an essential law everyone should know. However, challenges like improving the knowledge and investigative skills among police officers and educators need to be emphasized (Paek et al, 2021;Ahmad & Ramayah, 2022). Additionally, socioeconomic factors like income, education level, and access to technology can affect the risk of cybercrime and people's awareness of specific laws (Mupila et al, 2023).…”

Phishing victimization among Malaysian young adults: cyber routine activities theory and attitude in information sharing online

“…Prior research has shown that engaging in cyber social media activities, for example, sharing personal information on social media, increases the risk of cybercrime victimization (Choi and Lee, 2017; Ahmad and Thurasamy, 2022). Specifically, participating in risky cyber leisure activities and vocational activities significantly influences cybercrimes victimization, such as cyber interpersonal violence victimization (Choi and Lee, 2017) and cyberbullying victimization (Choi et al , 2019).…”

A systematic literature review of money mule: its roles, recruitment and awareness

“…Even cybercrime gains a wealthy attention of SLR publications, such as dark and surface web cybercrime intelligence threat (Cascavilla et al , 2021), routine activity theory in cybercrime (Ahmad and Thurasamy, 2022), cybercrime legislation (Khan et al , 2022), cybercrime defensive mechanism in virtual currency (Badawi and Jourdan, 2020), cybercrime investigation standard operating procedure (Jeffries and Apeh, 2020), cyberattacks during COVID-19 (Chigada and Madzinga, 2021), cybercrime fear (Brands and Van Doorn, 2022), cybercriminal profiling (Bada and Nurse, 2021), situational crime prevention techniques (Ho et al , 2022), social media cybersecurity (Herath et al , 2022) and cybersecurity frameworks (Perwej et al , 2021). Unfortunately, very few published articles elaborate the concern of money mule from a scholarly perspective.…”