Cybercrime and Social Transformations in the Digital Environment: A Sociological Study

Abstract

This paper examines cybercrime from a sociological perspective, treating it as a product of deep structural transformations that contemporary societies have undergone with the expansion of the digital environment. It argues that cybercrime is not merely a technical or legal problem but a genuinely social phenomenon reflecting shifts in patterns of social interaction, a relative weakening of traditional mechanisms of social control, and a reconfiguration of identity and space in collective consciousness. Using a descriptive-analytical approach grounded in a review of theoretical literature and prior Arabic and non-Arabic studies, the paper draws on several sociological and criminological frameworks -Routine Activity Theory, Anomie Theory, Differential Association Theory, the General Theory of Crime, and Labeling Theory — to understand how the digital environment generates new opportunities for deviance and crime. The paper concludes that confronting cybercrime requires a comprehensive societal approach that goes beyond technical and legal solutions to rebuild mechanisms of social control and digital socialization in step with ongoing structural change.