| Cybercrime continues to be a major concern and it is not just businesses and governments that are at risk. According to the 2012 Norton Cybercrime Report approximately 18 consumers per second fall victim to cybercrime worldwide (Norton, 2012). However, scholars have been slow to analyze the effect, if any, guardianship has on cybercrime. The goal of this study was to examine the concept of capable guardianship in cyberspace from the theoretical perspective of Cohen and Felson's (1979) routine activity theory by examining the extent, if any, that the tenet of guardianship explains the risk of becoming a victim of Internet crime when using an outdated web browser. A secondary analysis of Internet crime complaints (N = 91,771) was conducted using a 3x5 factorial ANOVA to determine if the effect that one independent variable (web browser type) has on the dependent variable (monetary loss) depends on the level of the other independent variable (web browser classification). The results of this statistical analysis showed web browser type and web browser classification groupings having increased relative risk for Internet crime complaints collected in 2012. The findings of this study support the continued research of web browsers as capable guardians for cybercrime. |
