From WWII to the World Wide Web: A Research Note on Social Changes, Online "Places," and a New Online Activity Ratio for Routine Activity Theory

From online banking to social networking sites, the advent of the Internet has revolutionized the manner in which society carries out their online routine activities. Although the Internet continues to be an invaluable resource, it also provides a unique medium for offenders to engage in crime and delinquency. Although criminologists have begun to explore the application of traditional theories into virtual environments, less is known about trends in the application and growth of cybercrime at the macro-level. Expanding on the core elements of Cohen and Felson's seminal work, we hypothesize that increases in rates of cybercrime are the result of technological social changes occurring post-commercialization of the Internet. A variety of data are presented to substantiate our hypothesis, along with a discussion of an online household activity ratio that holds promise in explaining trends in financial cybercrime victimization.