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

Abstract

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.