On the prevalence of cybercrime across Europe

Nowadays, most people are online. However, being an active user of the internet has its dangers, and as opposed to offline crime, cybercrime is on the rise. Yet how prevalent is cybercrime across Europe, and are there any noticeable differences between the main types of cybercrime? A study published in Crime Science looks at victim surveys in order to answer these questions.

The public and, hence governments, have always worried about crime. Therefore, policymakers have always put energy in collecting enough information on crime in order to be able to tell what is going on. As researchers and policymakers, we know a lot about ‘traditional’ offline crime. This is, among other things, because it is well defined, and we know how to measure it. We know, for instance, that crime increased a lot since WWII, stabilized, and then started declining in the nineties. This ‘crime drop’ has puzzled crime scientist, but it is generally agreed that increased prevention and security is the main reason for this decrease in ‘traditional, offline’ crime rates.