Page 10 - THENIGERIAPOLICEFORCE AND CYBERPOLICINGASYNOPSIS

Strengths of Routine Activities Theory

1) RAT has informed public policy, particularly with the development of situational

crime prevention strategies intended to increase guardianship (Clarke, 1997).
2) The theory provides insights on individual-level differences in victimization and

offending (Baumer & Arnior, 2016).
3) According to Siegel (2010), routine activities theory explains how victim’s behavior

can influence criminal opportunity.

Weaknesses of Routine Activities Theory

1) Researchers that try to apply this theory on cybercrimes focused on individuals. They

do not appear to be literatures testing RAT on nations that perpetrate cybercrimes

(Kigerl, 2012).
2) The capacity of RAT to explain patterns of cybercrime is questionable when Yar (as

cited in Leukeldt & Yar, 2016) stated that not all parts of RAT are translatable into
virtual environment.

3) While most recent researches have begun to explore the application of RAT to
cybercrime, most of the existing literature focused on victimization rather than

offending (Phillips, 2015).

In contemporary world, people, corporations and governments are routinely carrying out

several activities on the internet. It is alarming that, such activities increase target suitability
and the likelihood of cybercrime offending. Researchers found that risky activities, such as

frequently visiting unknown websites, downloading games, music or films, increase the
likelihood of computer virus attacks on one’s gadgets. Providing personal information such

as disclosure of credit card numbers or residential address and communicating with strangers
on social networking websites increase the likelihood of cybercrime. Also, uploading

expensive materials on social media enhances target attractiveness. Online businesses have

high propensity to cyber attacks, for financial gains or destruction of data. Likewise, the
security of a country could be undermined through espionage and counterintelligence, mostly

with the aid of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). In some instances,
cybercrimes result due to lack of cyber security awareness amongst internet users, which

presents a serious condition of absence of guardianship. Therefore, internet users are likely to
be protected if conventional policing could evolve to cyberspace, whereby the police and

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