Recent discussions of ‘cybercrime’ focus upon the apparent
novelty or otherwise of the phenomenon. Some authors claim that such crime is not
qualitatively different from ‘terrestrial crime’, and can be
analysed and explained using established theories of crime causation. One such
approach, oft cited, is the ‘routine activity theory’ developed
by Marcus Felson and others. This article explores the extent to which the
theory’s concepts and aetiological schema can be transposed to crimes
committed in a ‘virtual’ environment. Substantively, the
examination concludes that, although some of the theory’s core concepts
can indeed be applied to cybercrime, there remain important differences between
‘virtual’ and ‘terrestrial’ worlds that
limit the theory’s usefulness. These differences, it is claimed, give
qualified support to the suggestion that ‘cybercrime’ does
indeed represent the emergence of a new and distinctive form of crime.
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