Applying Routine Activity Theory to Cybercrime: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis

The central question of this article is whether routine activity theory (RAT) can be used as an analytical framework to study cybercrimes. Both a theoretical analysis and an analysis of empirical studies have thus far failed to provide a clear answer. The multivariate analysis presented in this article tries to avoid some of the limitations of other RAT-based studies. Based on a large sample (N = 9,161), the effects of value, visibility, accessibility, and guardianship on victimization of six cybercrimes have been studied. Analysis shows some RAT elements are more applicable than others. Visibility clearly plays a role within cybercrime victimization. Accessibility and personal capable guardianship show varying results. Value and technical capable guardianship show almost no effects on cybercrime victimization.     

Honneth and the Communitarians: Towards a Recognitive Critical Theory of Community

This paper attempts to sketch a critical model of political community by drawing upon recent contributions to the theory of ‘recognition’, particularly in the work of Axel Honneth. The paper proceeds by, first, delineating key features shared by a range of positions associated with ‘communitarianism’, along with the limitations and problems incurred by these commitments. The second part of the paper attempts to mobilise Honneth’s theoretical work to develop a conception of community that shares a number of the basic premisesvis-á-vis political life associated with communitarianism, but which nevertheless accommodates the reservations expressed by communitarianism’s liberal and radical critics. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.