Is Cyber harassment also a Cyber crime ?

Cyber harassment is a distinct Cyber crime. Such Harassment can be sexual, racial, religious, etc. Persons perpetuating such harassment are also guilty of cyber crimes. Cyber harassment could also lead to violation of privacy of netizens. Violation of privacy of online citizens is a Cyber crime of a grave nature.

Who Are Stalkers

Anyone can be a stalker, including but not limited to: strangers, classmates, casual acquaintances, ex-spouses, ex-partners, co-workers, neighbours, etc. Numerous examples have shown that stalkers are not easy to characterise demographically; they are as diverse as the general population and do not come from any particular socio-economic background. Similarly, anyone can become targeted for stalking, none of us are immune. Stalking can affect both women and men, and either sex can be the stalker or the target.

 

COMMITTEE COUNSEL HIGHLIGHTS OF

1997-98 LEGISLATIVE SESSION

The Assembly Judiciary Committee has one of the largest bill loads and broadest subject-matter jurisdictions in the Legislature. In the last two years, the Committee considered almost 400 bills. Its jurisdiction ranges from civil and constitutional rights to family law, civil practice and procedure, health care, contracts and commercial matters, the state bar, courts, tort reform, probate and landlord-tenant law. Following is a summary containing what committee counsel consider to be some of the major issues considered by the Judiciary Committee during the 1997-98 legislative session. (California)

 

Cyberstalking: As technology once again rears its ugly head, the Committee supported two important measures designed to protect victims from the new crime of cyberstalking. AB 350 (Firestone) establishes an emergency protective order (EPO) procedure for victims of stalking modelled after the EPO procedure already available to victims of domestic violence. The bill allows a peace officer to request an EPO for a stalking victim whom the officer believes is in immediate and present danger. SB 1796 (Leslie) addresses the crime of cyberstalking by updating stalking and harassment laws to include stalking via electronic technologies. Both measures were signed into law.

 

Stalking Typologies and Pathologies

 

Vernon Geberth, a retired homicide commander and author of Practical Homicide Investigation (1996) provides two broad categories of stalkers. These are Psychopathic Personality Stalkers and Psychotic Personality Stalkers. The following table outlines some of the characteristics of each:

This is a somewhat general and broad classification system on which to examine stalking. The latter category usually implies the presence of some mental disorder, and the individual may not or may not be aware of his actions.

 

1. Simple Obsessional: These cases typically involve a victim and a perpetrator who have a prior relationship. This group comprises the largest of the categories (47 percent (Geberth, 1992)), and also poses most threat to the victim. The motivation behind this may be coercion to re-enter a relationship, or revenge aimed at making the life of the former intimate uncomfortable through the inducement of fear.

2. Love Obsessional: Most likely involving no prior relationship. The victims may become known through the media, or perhaps through the Internet. Love obsessional stalkers comprise the second largest group of approximately 43% (Geberth, 1992). A large number of these individuals may be suffering from a mental disorder such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. The most common type is the individual who pursues a celebrity, which may be more familiar as the "obsessed fan syndrome".

3. Erotomanic: These cases differ from Love Obsessional in that they possess the delusion that the target of the behaviour is in love with them (lowest incidence in the Zona and Threat Management Unit study (Geberth, 1992). Research would indicate that perpetrators are more likely to be female, with the majority of victims being older males of higher social status. Further broken into two categories of primary (or pure) erotomania where no other significant disorders are present, and secondary erotomania where the disorder is the result of another significant, dominant pathology.

 

What is stalking?

Stalking is an abnormal or long-term pattern of threat or harassment that: (a) is directed repeatedly toward a specific individual; (b) is experienced as unwelcome or intrusive; and (c) is reported to trigger fear or concern.

 

Types of stalkers- analysis

The Rejected Stalker:

Motivation

·         Begins to stalk after their partner (romantic or close friendship) has ended their relationship or indicates that he or she intends to end the relationship.

·         Wants to try to be in a relationship with the victim again or seek revenge on the victim. The stalker's goals may vary between these, depending on the responses of the victim.

Personality

·         May have high levels of these personality characteristics:

·         narcissism

·         jealousy

·         May have:

·         feelings of humiliation

·         over-dependence

·         poor social skills and a resulting poor social network

Stalking Behaviors

·         Is often the most persistent and intrusive type of stalker.

·         Is most likely to employ intimidation and assault in pursuit of their victim. A history of violence in the relationship with the partner is not uncommon.

Duration and Criminality

·         Is typically the most resistant type of stalker to efforts aimed at ending their stalking behavior.

 

The Resentful Stalker:

Motivation

·         Wants to frighten and distress his victim.

·         Stalks his victim to get revenge against someone who has upset him.

·         Views his victim as being like the kind of people who have oppressed and humiliated him in the past.

·         May view himself as a victim striking back against an oppressor.

Personality

·         Is often irrationally paranoid.

Victim Characteristics

·         Stalks victims that may have upset him directly or be representative of a group at which the he is upset.

·         May stalk someone he knows or a complete stranger.

Stalking Behaviors

·         Can be the most obsessive and enduring type of stalker.

·         Is the most likely to verbally threaten his victim.

·         Is one of the least likely to physically assault his victim.

Duration and Criminality

·         Is likely to stop stalking if confronted with legal sanctions early on. The longer the stalking continues, the less effective legal sanctions are likely to be.

 

The Predatory Stalker:

Motivation

·         Stalks his victim as part of a plan to attack her, usually sexually.

·         Is motivated by the promise of sexual gratification and power over his victim.

Personality

·         Often has poor self-esteem and is sexually deviant.

·         Often has poor social skills, especially when it comes to romantic relationships.

·         May have lower than normal intelligence.

Victim Characteristics

·         May stalk someone he knows or a complete stranger.

Stalking Behaviors

·         Usually does not harass or try to contact his victim while he is stalking her. He is unlikely to provide any kind of warning of his plan to attack the victim.

·         May engage in behaviors such as:

·         Surveillance of the victim

·         Obscene phone calls

·         Exhibitionism

·         Fetishism

·         Voyeurism (Peeping Tom)

·         Paedophilia/hebephilia

·         Sexual masochism and sadism

·         Paraphilic asphyxia

Duration and Criminality

·         May stalk for a shorter period of time than other types of stalkers.

·         Is more likely to have prior criminal convictions, most often sexual, than other types of stalkers.

·         Has a high potential to commit sexual assault.

 

The Intimacy Seeker:

Motivation

·         Seeks to establish an intimate, loving relationship with his victim.

·         May believe the victim is in love with them. This is a delusion.

·         Believes that the victim may be the only person who can satisfy their desires.

·         Believes the victim is an ideal partner.

·         Is not a would-be lover. He already loves the victim.

·         May interpret any kind of response from his victim, even negative responses, as encouragement.

·         May believe the victim owes him love because of all he has invested in stalking her.

·         Is very resistant to changing his beliefs about his victim's love for him.

Personality

·         Is often a shy, isolated person.

·         Often lives alone and lacks any sort of intimate relationship in his life. He may never have had an intimate relationship.

·         Likely to have a mental disorder such as:

·         Schizophrenia

·         Erotomania

·         Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Victim Characteristics

·         May stalk acquaintances or complete strangers.

Stalking Behaviors

·         If he recognizes he is being rejected by the victim, may become threatening or violent.

·         May engage in behaviors such as:

·         Writing letters to the victim

·         Calling the victim on the telephone

·         Sending the victim gifts

·         May become jealous if his victim enters or continues a romantic relationship with another man.

Duration and Criminality

·         Is among the most persistent type of stalker, harassing longer than any type except the rejected stalker.

·         Is usually unresponsive to legal sanctions because he views them as challenges to be overcome that demonstrate his love for the victim.

 

The Incompetent Suitor:

Motivation

·         Is motivated by a desire to start a romantic or intimate relationship with his victim.

·         Is impaired in his social skills and courting skills.

Personality

·         May be cut off from victim's feelings (lack of empathy) and believe that any woman should be attracted to him.

·         May have lower than normal intelligence.

Victim Characteristics

·         Usually stalks acquaintances, but may stalk complete strangers.

Stalking Behaviors

·         Typically engages in behaviors such as:

·         Repeatedly asking for dates, even after being rejected.

·         Repeatedly calling on the phone.

·         Trying to hold the victim's hand or kiss the victim.

Duration and Criminality

·         Stalks for shorter periods, on average, than any other type of stalker.

·         Likely to have stalked numerous others in the past.

·         Will likely stalk numerous others in the future.

·         Will quickly stop stalking if confronted with legal action or after seeking counseling.

 

The Erotomaniac and Morbidly Infatuated:

Motivation

·         Believes that he is loved by the stalking victim. He believes this even though his victim has done nothing to suggest it is true, and may have made statements that she does not and never will love him.

·         Reinterprets what his victim says and does to support his belief that she loves him.

·         Makes the imagined romance with his victim the most important part of his life.

·         Believes that the imagined romance will eventually become a permanent union.

Personality

·         May suffer from one or more of the following psychological problems:

·         Acute paranoia

·         Delusions

·         These psychological problems may be the result of numerous forms of mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and borderline personality disorder.

Victim Characteristics

·         Typically choses a victim of higher social status.

Stalking Behaviors

·         Repeatedly tries to approach and communicate with their supposed lover.

Duration and Criminality

·         Sometimes responds well to psychological treatment with drugs and talking therapy, and sometimes does not.

·         Is typically unresponsive to threats of legal action or actual legal action short of time behind bars. Without psychological treatment, he is likely to continue stalking his victim after he is released.

 

 

 

Study traces characteristics of stalkers

Marital "disjunction" is frequently a factor in the lives of stalkers, study finds

 

Stalking: a real problem

 

‘Cyber stalking is soaring,’ says Evonne Von Heussen, MBE, the founder of the National Association against Stalking and Harassment, the only charity of its kind in the UK. ‘At one time we dealt with the more traditional forms of stalking where someone followed their victim around or called them on the phone. Now we’re dealing with more cases of Internet stalking than ever before. We’re working on more than a dozen cases at the moment. To the victim, it’s terrifying. The cyber stalker has such power.’

“Stalking Disrupts Lives, Leaves Emotional Scars
Perpetrators Are Often Mentally Ill”