enforcement officials in Europe and Asia and Oceania tended to view cybercrime as increasing, rather than strongly increasing; and a small number of countries in Europe were of the view that the phenomenon was stable.35 Law enforcement officials referred to a range of cybercrime acts as increasing, including computer-related fraud and identity theft; computer-related production, distribution or possession of child pornography; phishing attempts; and illegal access to computer systems, including hacking. Increasing levels of cybercrime are attributed by law enforcement officials in part to a growing capability in the area of anonymity techniques when using ICT, as well as the growing commercialization of computer misuse tools. Chapter Two (The global picture) further analyses information provided by states and the private sector on trends in and threats from specific cybercrime acts. Underlying factors: Criminological and socio-economic approaches From a criminological perspective, the suggestion that ICT and the increasing use of the internet create new opportunities for offenders and facilitates the growth of crime is highly plausible. While a number of different criminological theories are applicable, the fact that cybercrime represents ‘a new and distinctive format of crime,’36 creates challenges to predicting developments, and to its prevention, by the application of general crime theories.37 One key proposition is that the emergence of ‘cyberspace’ creates new phenomena that are notably distinct from the (mere) existence of computer systems themselves, and the direct opportunities for crime that computers present. Within cyberspace, persons may show differences between their conforming (legal) and nonconforming (illegal) behaviour as compared with their behaviour in the physical world. Persons may, for example, commit crimes in cyberspace that they would not otherwise commit in physical space due to their status and position. In addition, identity flexibility, dissociative anonymity and a lack of deterrence factors may provide incentives for criminal behaviour in cyberspace.38 Figure 1.7: Possible underlying factors linked to increases in cybercrime Identity flexibility and dissociative anonymity Criminal social learning Cybercrime Socio‐ economic pressures Ready access to global victims Routine activity theory (RAT)39 may also provide insight into underlying drivers of cybercrime. RAT proposes that crime risk increases upon the convergence of: (i) a motivated 35 36 37 38 39 period of 2007 to 2011 or 2006 to 2010 (‘the last five years’). Ibid. Yar, M., 2005. The novelty of ‘cybercrime’: An assessment in light of routine activity theory. European Journal of Criminology, 2(4):407427. Koops, B.J., 2010. The Internet and its Opportunities for Crime. In: Herzog-Evans, M., (ed.) Transnational Criminology Manual. Nijmegen, Netherlands: WLP, pp.735-754. Jaishankar. K., 2011. Expanding Cyber Criminology with an Avant-Garde Anthology. In: Jaishankar, K., (ed.) Cyber Criminology: Exploring Internet Crimes and Criminal Behaviour. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group. Kigerl, A., 2012. Routine Activity Theory and the Determinants of High Cybercrime Countries. Social Science Computer Review, 30(4):470-486, 470. 8