Applying and Extending Routine Activities to Cybercrime and Place

• In Event: Theoretical Approaches to Cyber Crime

Abstract

While criminologists have recently begun to explore the transposability of terrestrial-based theories into virtual environments, limited information exists regarding trends in the application and growth of cybercrime. Given evolving advances in technology, along with the exponential increase in Internet users, we apply Routine Activities Theory to understand the nature and extent of cybercrime growth over time using data from eight years of the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and the U.S. Census surveys on Internet and computer use. Herein, we attempt to replicate much of Cohen and Felson’s (1979) seminal work that presented routine activities theory as a macro level theory of crime and opportunity. The present study, explores, replicates, and expands the original through a discussion of crime and place from a cyberspace, on-line, web presence point of view.

Authors

• Patrick Quinn Brady, Sam Houston State University

• Ryan Randa, Sam Houston State University