Culture Lag: The New Ambiguities and Crimes on the Internet

"Make no mistake: this kind of harassment can be as frightening
and as real as being followed and watched in your neighborhood or
in your home."
--Former Vice President Al Gore

Cyberstalking. It is a new type of harassment popular in today’s world of social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Al Gore, ever the internet pioneer, saw its potential hazards when he gave the above quote back in 1999. Our culture has taken some time to react to the immense changes brought on by the internet. Often times there is a lot of personal information about a person which can be found over the internet, which an online stalker may use against them. Often cyberstalking is perpetrated by someone who has had some contact with the victim, although it occasionally can be a total stranger. Part of the reason online stalking and harassment are so common is that is is far less confrontational of a method than actually physically stalking the person or harassing them over the telephone, so a potential stalker will often feel more brave and invulnerable.

One of the earliest convictions of a cyberstalker was the case of a fifty year old security guard in California, who after being rejected in his attempts to date a 28 year old acquantance. The man impersonated her online in various chatrooms and forums, and gave away her address, telling strangers that she wanted to have random sexual encounters at her house and how to disarm her security system. He even went so far as to tell the men that she had a fantasy of being raped so that the men would be aggressive when they arrived. Six men showed up at the woman’s house on different occasions.

The man plead guilty in April 1999 and faces a maximum of six years in prison.

Since that first conviction, many states have begun writing anti-harassment laws specifically for the internet. There is still some culture lag, however, as many law enforcement facilities are scrambling to train detectives with the skills necessary to investigate and prosecute these offenders. This is a difficult task, because the online stalkers are often cloaked in a shroud of anonymity that can be difficult to penetrate.

Source: http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/cyberstalking.htm