*Cybercrime: Victims' Shock Absorption Mechanisms DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.106818*

enabling this type of criminal activity. One frequently adopted definition of cybercrime describes it as any action in which computers or networks are a tool, a target or a place of criminal attack [15, 16]. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) [17] defined "cybercrime as a criminal offence involving a computer as the object of the crime (hacking, phishing, spamming), or as the tool used to commit a material component of the offence (child pornography, hate crimes, computer fraud)". As the name suggests, this phrase appears often when computers or associated technology is employed in a criminal offence. Traditional crimes like distributing child pornography, illegal substances, and hate crimes may be considered cybercrimes since they can be perpetrated via the internet [12, 15].

Innovative Dynamic Networks (IND) [18] defined "cybercrime in a contracted sense to imply unlawful acts directed by means of electronic operations that targets the security of computer systems and the data processed by them". Cybercrime in a broader sense according to Innovative Dynamic Networks (IND) [18] refers to "prohibited activities committed by means of, or in relation to, a computer system or network, including such crimes as illegal possession and offering or distributing information by means of a computer system or network". United Nations Office on Drugs Control (UNODC), [19] defined "cybercrime as a cluster of unlawful behaviour such as offences against the confidentiality, integrity and availability of computer data and systems, computer-related offences, content-related offences and offences related to infringements of copyright and other related rights".

Cybercrime differs, according to McConnell International in Tamarkin [12], from most conventional deviant behaviours in four ways: the criminal act is relatively easy to learn, the cost of committing the crime is never proportional to the damages caused, it is a borderless crime and fourthly, the act, most times are not clearly prohibited. It is important to note that e-crime is perpetuated in the virtual environment. The virtual environment is designed in such a way that data about individuals, things, realities, proceedings, phenomena or events are depicted in mathematical symbol or any other way and transmitted through local and global networks. From the foregoing, the term 'cybercrime' can be applied in explaining, as well as, describing widespread destructions on computer data or networks through interception, interference or damage of such data or systems. It can also be used to explain and describe crime committed against computer systems or the use of the computer in committing crimes. The definitions, although not completely definitive, and perfect, provide a recognised and good framework for explaining cybercrime at the international level and within the context of this chapter.
