ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some of the emerging challenges in applying the theory to cybercrimes, potential solutions to these challenges, as well as a review of the current state of the field. Routine activity theory is part of the opportunity perspective in criminology which views criminal opportunities as the ultimate cause of criminal events. Its central tenets explain that crimes occur when circumstances favorable to crime culminate to produce criminal opportunities. According to routine activity theory, motivated offenders will act upon opportunities when they encounter suitable targets that lack capable guardianship. In the parlance of routine activity theory, cybercrimes rely on computer networks to connect motivated offenders with potential targets of victimization in an absence of capable guardianship. Cyberlifestyle-routine activities theory argues that the separation of motivated offenders and suitable targets in time can be reconciled by considering their interaction as "lagged" in time.
