Exploring Sexting and Online Sexual Victimization during the COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown

The COVID-19 pandemic lockdown has impacted daily routines, forcing people to stop socializing in person and changing the way people express their feelings and their romantic or sexual interactions. Social distancing has changed the way people behave online, and we expect that engagement in sexting and online sexual victimization behaviors have increased during lockdown. The aim of this paper is to study the prevalence of sexting and online sexual victimization behaviors during the COVID-19 lockdown in Spanish adults in order to explore how social distancing has affected these behaviors. The sample comprised 293 Spanish adults (mean age = 30.3; 66.2% female) who took part in an online survey about their engagement in sexting behaviors and online sexual victimization experiences. Overall results were apparently not supportive of our main hypothesis, showing that both sexting engagement and online sexual victimization decreased during lockdown despite the increase in internet use. Apart from differences in time period of reference, some alternative hypotheses relate to the increased presence of capable guardians according to the routine activities theory and to forced distance as a demotivation to sext. Possible explanations and hypotheses for these results are discussed further in the paper.

Examining the Characteristics That Differentiate Jihadi-Associated Cyberattacks Using Routine Activities Theory

This study applies routine activities theory to determine whether the characteristics of jihadi-inspired web defacements in the United States vary from all other defacements performed against IP addresses hosted within the United States from 2012 to 2016. We focus on target suitability variables and use a sample of over 2.2 million defacements reported by the independent website Zone-H. We estimated a binary logistic regression model and found that jihadi cyberattacks were rare among all the defacements performed in this 5-year period. Additionally, these findings demonstrated jihadists were more likely to target organizational websites and utilized specific attack methods compared to all other defacers. We contextualize our findings and outline a number of avenues for future research.

Workplace Cyberbullying: A Criminological and Routine Activity Perspective

Extant research on the antecedents of workplace cyberbullying pays little attention to the role of perpetrator traits in influencing workplace cyberbullying, as well as the unique occurrence context that distinguishes workplace cyberbullying with juvenile cyberbullying, workplace bullying, and adult cyberbullying in general. To fill these gaps, we consider the antecedents of workplace cyberbullying under the theoretical lens of the general theory of crime and routine activities theory. We build a model incorporating low self-control, a widely discussed perpetrator trait in criminology theories, with three types of routine activities representing the unique occurrence context for workplace cyberbullying--mWork, boundary spanning in ESM, and proactive email checking. We tested our model with 2025 employees in the U.S.. Our findings demonstrate that low self-control and the three routine activities are strong motivators for workplace cyberbullying. Our findings further show that the effect of low self-control on workplace cyberbullying is amplified by the three routine activities. The study contributes to our understanding of why workplace cyberbullying occurs and offers potential implications for managers interested in reducing incidences of workplace cyberbullying in their organization.

Routine Activities and Stalking Victimization in Sexual Minority College Students

Sexual minority individuals, due to additional chronic stress they experience from living with a marginalized identity, may be perceived as vulnerable targets by motivated perpetrators of stalking. Using campus climate data collected over 11 years, researchers explore stalking victimization with a particular focus on the experiences of sexual minority college students. To get a better understanding of stalking as experienced by this population, this study investigated descriptive qualities and prevalence of stalking victimization among college students to compare experiences of sexual minority and heterosexual individuals. Additionally, using a routine activities theory framework, this study explored multiple sexual minority identities as unique predictors of stalking victimization. Results showed that bisexual and pansexual women were significantly more likely to experience stalking than heterosexual women, and gay men were significantly more likely to experience stalking than heterosexual men. In samples that included heterosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and pansexual students, having a sexual minority identity predicted stalking victimization for men, and having a non-monosexual (bisexual or pansexual) identity predicted stalking victimization for women. When looking across all sexual orientations, sexual minority identity significantly predicted stalking victimization for both men and women. Results are discussed in the context of routine activities theory and future directions for exploring stalking in sexual minority populations are identified.

Memahami Kekerasan Seksual dalam Menara Gading di Indonesia

Many studies on campus sexual assault in the past use lifestyle-routine activities theory to explain the crime. According to those studies, certain lifestyle factors can increase the likelihood of victimization while still in college. Our research shows that the two theories fail to explain that several institutional policies or regulations set by universities can limit and shape an individual's lifestyle, thus increasing the risk of victimization. These policies or regulations include class schedules, thesis consultancies, and campus-community service programs. Against this background, the authors argue that the root cause of campus sexual assault lies in the patriarchal culture in the Indonesia context hence women have a higher risk of victimization than men.

Development and Crime Drop: A Time-Series Analysis of Crime Rates in Hong Kong in the Last Three Decades

Although the recent crime drop in Western societies has rejuvenated crime trend studies, little is known about the crime trends and the corresponding explanations in the East. This study aims to fill the gaps by examining different types of offenses in Hong Kong between 1976 and 2017. Specifically, this study tests and evaluates major macro-level theoretical approaches explaining crime trends, including institutional anomie theory, routine activities theory, and deterrence theory. Using Error Correction Models, our analyses reveal that the strengths of different social institutions are negatively associated with crime rates, showing strong support to institutional anomie theory. The results also partially support routine activities theory by demonstrating that levels of economic development are negatively associated with both violent and property crime rates, and the number of mobile cellular subscriptions is negatively related to homicide rates. Deterrence explanations are mainly supported for property crime. These findings provide theoretical insights on the etiology of crime and also yield important policy suggestions on how to sustain the observed decline in crime rates in modern societies.