Cybercrime Victimization: An Examination of Individual and Situational Level Factors

Using a sample of college students, we apply the general theory of crime and the lifestyle/routine activities framework to assess the effects of individual and situational factors on seven types of cybercrime victimization. The results indicate that neither individual nor situational characteristics consistently impacted the likelihood of being victimized in cyberspace. Self-control was significantly related to only two of the seven types of cybercrime victimizations and although five of the coefficients in the routine activity models were significant, all but one of these significant effects were in the opposite direction to that expected from the theory. At the very least, it would appear that other theoretical frameworks should be appealed to in order to explain victimization in cyberspace.