Assessing sex experiences of online victimization: An examination of adolescent online behaviors using routine activity theory

The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in online victimization between genders, through variables representing the three constructs of routine activity theory. A survey was administered to 100-level courses at a mid-sized university in the northeast, which questioned respondent on their Internet behaviors and experiences during the high school senior and college freshman time period. The findings of the study indicated that participating in behaviors that increased exposure to motivated offenders and target suitability in turn increased the likelihood of victimization for both genders. Conversely, taking protective measures to improve capable guar-dianship was shown to be the least effective measure, as it did not decrease the likelihood of victi-mization. This research provides a significant contribution to the literature as there are few explanatory studies that attempt to identify causal reasoning for this behavior