Lifestyles, routine activities and cyber abuse: Is there a link? An exploratory analysis of cyber abuse using AutoStat® and Bayesian variable selection

The advent of the Internet has brought with it improved communication, opportunities for business, advancements in science and technology. It has also created new opportunities for crime, new methods of committing them and a larger pool of potential victims. One such crime is cyber abuse, an umbrella term used for stalking and harassment committed with the use of technology.
While some researchers argue that cyber abuse is simply an extension of old traditional forms of interpersonal violence (e.g. stalking and harassment), it is clear that technology affects the way the crime is perpetrated, experienced and, subsequently, can be prevented.

Research in mechanisms of stalking and harassment is quite extensive with a number of criminological theories used to explain its causes. However, the causal mechanism of new technological forms of abuse is not yet fully understood. It is also unclear whether the traditional theories that were developed with “terrestrial” forms of crime in mind are useful in explaining these new forms of crime.

In this paper, we focus on lifestyles-routine activities theory, which explains why some people are more likely to experience crime than others (Cohen et al., 1981). From this perspective, crime is seen as a product of motivated offenders converging in time and in space with suitable targets in the absence of capable guardians (Cohen and Felson, 1979).