ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the manifestation and trends in cybercrime, an overview of current prevention initiatives in practice at a European and United Kingdom level, a conceptual discussion of primary cybercrime prevention and a discussion of contemporary empirical studies that test the effectiveness of prevention initiatives in practice through the application of routine activities theory. A key problem to better understanding and controlling cyber-related crimes is the lack of reliable data on their frequency and the nature of their impact on the general public, businesses and on the national critical infrastructure. Combined estimates from the 2012 and 2013 surveys show that there were an estimated 356,000 incidents of online crime against businesses in the five sectors in the 12 months prior to interview. Crime prevention initiatives in Europe have focused on raising the awareness of citizens to the risks of cybercrime and thereby prompting them to proactively take measures to lessen or mitigate the risks via target hardening techniques.
