Contextual Vulneralbilities Approach to Understand Victimization in Cyberspace

Economic cybercrime is one of the unwelcomed consequences of unprecedented intrusion of
the Internet in our daily lives. Academic interest in understanding the causes and adverse
impacts of cybercrime is growing. Opportunity perspective, which perceives individuals' daily
routines and lifestyles as the primary facilitator of victimization, has been widely applied as a
theoretical and conceptual framework in cybercrime victimization research. However, this
approach put the responsibility of the victimization on victims explicitly, which hampers the
application of crime prevention and reduction efforts. This book presents the Contextual
Vulnerabilities approach based on the significant findings of a doctoral study conducted at
Durham University in the United Kingdom. Contextual vulnerabilities approach posits that
cybercrime victimization is the outcome of the confluence of contextual factors that are
mostly beyond victims' control. This approach presumes that controlling individual (micro-
level), macro-level and socio-cultural vulnerabilities may prevent cybercrime victimization.
Though the preliminary goal of this book is to provide a new theoretical perspective to
scholars researching victimization in cyberspace, I hope the wider audience would find it
informative.