How does cyber technology impact interactions between offenders and victims?

From the research done in the cybercrime field, it is found that cyber victims, against traditional crimes, are more likely to be offenders. This means that it is more difficult to separate a victim from an offender. As we have repeatedly said, technology is fast growing and full of advancements. As a result, cybercrime rates and consistently increasing and surprisingly traditional crimes are starting to decrease. One of those reasons may be that cybercrimes are easier to get away with because they are seemingly harder to detect. According to Offending and victimization in the digital age written by Thomas Holt and Van Gelder, “Although cybercrime offending and victimization have largely been studied separately, there is evidence of shared risk factors, like low self-control and risky online routine activities. In fact, cybercrime offending has been found to be a risk factor for victimization and vice versa (e.g., Bossler and Holt 2009; Morris 2011; Ngo and Paternoster 2011; Wolfe, Higgins, and Marcum 2008). This indicates that cybercrime offending and victimization share similar underlying correlates, and as such should be studied in tandem, as is evident in traditional crimes.” It is easier to say that cybercriminals are smarter than the average traditional criminal. This makes logical sense, in the way, for example, it is easier to shoot someone with a gun than it is to hack into a computer and download all of the data without being traced. This type of action makes it ten times harder for legal personnel to investigate a crime. These cybercriminals a one mentioned before, trick themselves into believing they are not committing a crime because that would equate to hurting someone physically. So, in this sense cybercriminals have more self-control compared to traditional criminals. Due to all of the advancements in technology, it seems as though we need new sets of laws that applied to our online crimes since they are looked at differently. The ongoing idea of white-collar crimes must be changed in order to protect our communities and societies against malicious attacks.

Work Cited:

Weulen Kranenbarg, Marleen, Thomas J Holt, and Jean-Louis Van Gelder. “Offending and Victimization in the Digital Age: Comparing Correlates of Cybercrime and Traditional Offending-Only, Victimization-Only and the Victimization-Offending Overlap.” Deviant Behavior 40.1 (2019): 40-55. Web