Being Pursued Online

Abstract

Building upon Eck and Clarke's (2003) ideas for explaining crimes in which there is no face-to-face contact between victims and offenders, the authors developed an adapted lifestyle-routine activities theory. Traditional conceptions of place-based environments depend on the convergence of victims and offenders in time and physical space to explain opportunities for victimization. With their proposed cyberlifestyle-routine activities theory, the authors moved beyond this conceptualization to explain opportunities for victimization in cyberspace environments where traditional conceptions of time and space are less relevant. Cyberlifestyle-routine activities theory was tested using a sample of 974 college students on a particular type of cybervictimization-cyberstalking. The study's findings provide support for the adapted theoretical perspective. Specifically, variables measuring online exposure to risk, online proximity to motivated offenders, online guardianship, online target attractiveness, and online deviance were significant predictors of cyberstalking victimization. Implications for advancing cyberlifestyle-routine activities theory are discussed.

Crime and Justice in Digital Society: Towards a ‘Digital Criminology’?

“…Between 2002 to 2010, there was an explosion of social networks and image-sharing platforms including Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram. Research into cyberbullying, cyberstalking and online harassment rapidly expanded over this period as the relative ease, anonymity and reach of online communications were associated with (continuing) concerns regarding invasive and threatening communications (Pittaro 2007;Reyns, Henson and Fisher 2011;Spitzberg and Hoobler 2002), particularly in relation to vulnerable groups such as children and young adults.…”

Plastic Money and Electronic Banking Services Espousal vis-a-viz Financial Identity Theft Fraud Risk Awareness in a Developing Country

“…Correspondingly, online shopping and downloading behaviours augmented victimization risk. Reyns, Henson & Fisher (2011) found that specifically, antecedents measuring online exposure to risk, online immediacy to motivated offenders, online guardianship, online target charisma, and online deviance were noteworthy predictors of cyber aggravation victimization. However, Leukfeldt (2014) concluded that personal background and financial characteristics play no role in phishing victimization and only "targeted browsing" led to amplified risk.…”

Serial Bullying and Harassment

“…For instance, Reyns, Henson, and Fisher (2011) found that lack of guardianship (either human, or electronic in the form of profile trackers for cyberbullying) was a greater influence on bullying than suitability of the victim. For instance, Reyns, Henson, and Fisher (2011) found that lack of guardianship (either human, or electronic in the form of profile trackers for cyberbullying) was a greater influence on bullying than suitability of the victim.…”