Toward a Cybervictimology: Cyberbullying, Routine Activities Theory, and the Anti-Sociality of Social Media

Existing research on cyberbullying has consistently overlooked the role of victims in online offending, as well as victim behaviour as both a facilitator and predictor of digital predation. This article offers an interdisciplinary critique of existing research and proposes a new framework of cybervi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Canadian journal of communication 2015-08, Vol.40 (3), p.371-388
Main Author: Arntfield, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antisocial personality disorder
Behavior
Bullying
Child pornography
Children
Codification
Crime
Cyberbullying
Digital media
Empirical analysis
Fisher, Bonnie
Hunt, Scott
Internet
Law enforcement
Motion pictures
Murder
Occupations
Pictures
Predation
Profiling
Recording
Reinforcement
Risk
Routines
Social networks
Socioeconomic status
Victimization
Victims of crime
Websites
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Summary:Existing research on cyberbullying has consistently overlooked the role of victims in online offending, as well as victim behaviour as both a facilitator and predictor of digital predation. This article offers an interdisciplinary critique of existing research and proposes a new framework of cybervictimology—traditional victimology in the context of cyberactivities. The framework points to cyberbullying as being best explained by Cohen and Felson’s (1979) routine activities theory of crime. Because one of the main criteria of “traditional” corporeal bullying is repetition, the routine activities of victims in social media environments are key facilitators in the bullying process; they serve as advanced indicators of victimization in a space where anti-social behaviour is comparatively tolerated—and even celebrated—in the absence of suitable guardianship.
ISSN:0705-3657
1499-6642
DOI:10.22230/cjc.2015v40n3a2863