E-Victims: : Explaining Online Victimization For The Cases Of Cyberbullying And Cyberstalking

Sammanfattning: Internet has become a great part of our daily routines giving us the ability to perform various actions in many aspects of our personal and social life. The new available opportunities provided with the Internet enhancement have opened a great space for improvement in our lives but they have also provided space for new types of criminal behaviour to occur. Cyberbullying and cyberstalking are part of the wide range of criminal behaviors performed through an online device. The presence of online criminal behavior is accompanied by the increase on the online victimization rates. The aim of this paper is to explain online victimization performed through cyberbullying and cyberstalking based on the theories of routine activity, social learning and victim precipitation.The results show that online victimization is closely connected with the daily routines that individuals have accompanied by the interactions and associations that are performed during our social life who also influence the practise of online victimization. Anonymity is a commonly found factor almost always present and plays an important role on explaining the behavior itself for both the offender and the victim's side. Overall the findings show that both online offenders and online victims of cyberbullying and cyberstalking are given more engagement opportunities in the criminal act due to the constant usage and the inclusion of online devices in theor daily routines. The above accompanied with the anonymity and opportunity provided by cyberspace ease the " performance" of cyber victimization.