Recent studies show that there has been an increase in the rate of crimes that are committed online over the last 20+ years, while the rate of traditional crime has decreased. This means that crime isn’t decreasing, it’s just changed. In 2016, a research showed that online property crime rates show a wave in new crime. Unlike traditional crime which has a physical deviance to it, these new forms of crimes take place digitally from anywhere in the world. In any case, both traditional and cyber crimes have the risk of having an overlap of victimization and offending.
Situational and personal risk factors such as low self-control, risky lifestyle, substance abuse, and low socioeconomic status are associated with both offending and victimization. Those who spend time with delinquent individuals have a higher chance of being delinquent themselves. The same goes for cyber criminals however in a different context. Cybercrimes still have overlaps but for some reason they are overlooked because cybercrimes are committed in the cyber space. For example, when person A murders person B, there is an overlap between victimization (person B) and offending (person A). The same goes for cybercrime. Person A hacks into person B’s bank account and take all the money in their Roth IRA. The overlap is still there just not in a physical sense. The victim (person B) has their money stolen from their Roth IRA by the offender (person A). The only real difference is that the people in the physical example meet when in the cyber example there’s a chance that they have 0 interaction. Nevertheless, there will always be an overlap in crime.
In conclusion, the overlap between victims and offenders will always be there no matter what the crime may be. Whether is physical interactions or some just stealing money from another.