CYBERSTALKING AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE - PART II

Originally published 8/28/2011

CYBERSTALKING AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Report to Congress


U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs 810 Seventh Street NW. Washington, DC 20531

John Ashcroft

Attorney General

Office of Justice Programs World Wide Web Home Page www.ojp.usdoj.gov

Violence Against Women Office World Wide Web Home Page www.ojp.usdoj.gov/vawo

Report to Congress on Stalking and Domestic Violence 2

Nature and Extent of Cyberstalking

An Existing Problem

Aggravated by New Technology

Although online harassment and threats can take many forms, cyberstalking shares important characteristics with offline stalking. Many stalkers—online or offline—are motivated by a desire to exert control over their victims and will engage in similar types of behavior to accomplish this end. As with offline stalking, the available evidence (which is largely anecdotal) suggests that the majority of cyber- stalkers are men and the majority of their victims are women, although there have been reported cases of women cyberstalk- ing men and of same-sex cyberstalking. In many cases, the cyberstalker and the vic- tim had a prior relationship, and the cyber- stalking began when the victim attempted to break off the relationship. However, there also have been many instances of cyberstalking by strangers.

The fact that cyberstalking does not involve physical contact may create the misperception that it is more benign than physical stalking. This is not necessarily true. As the Internet becomes an evermore integral part of our personal and professional lives, stalkers can take advantage of the ease of communication as well as increased access to an enormous amount of personal information that is available through the Internet. Indeed, a cyberstalker can easily locate private information about a potential victim with a few mouse clicks or keystrokes. In addition, the ease of use and the nonconfrontational, impersonal, and sometimes anonymous nature of Internet communications may remove disincentives to cyberstalking. Put another way, where a potential stalker may be unwilling or unable to confront a victim in person or on the telephone, he or she may have little hesitation sending harassing or threatening electronic communications. Furthermore, as with physical stalking, online harassment and threats may

foreshadow more serious behavior, including physical violence.

Despite the many similarities between offline and online stalking, the Internet and other communications technologies provide new avenues for stalkers to pursue their victims. A cyberstalker may send repeated, threatening, or harassing messages (or through public blogs) by the simple push of a button. More sophisticated cyberstalkers use programs to send messages at regular or random intervals without being physically present at the computer terminal. California law enforcement authorities say they have encountered situations in which victims repeatedly received the message “187” on their pagers—the section of the California Penal Code for murder. In addition, a cyberstalker can dupe other Internet users into harassing or threatening a victim by, for example, posting a victim’s name, telephone number, (ways to find unpublished address)  e-mail address on a bulletin board or in a chat room with a controversial message or invitation, resulting in the victim receiving multiple e-mails in response. Each message—whether from the actual cyber- stalker or others—will have the intended effect of frightening or harassing the victim, with little effort on the part of the cyberstalker.

Evidence Suggests Cyberstalking Incidents Are Increasing

Although comprehensive nationwide data on the extent of cyberstalking in the United States do not yet exist, there is a growing body of statistics available from law enforcement agencies, as well as from some ISPs, that compile information on the number and types of complaints of harassment and threats involving ISP subscribers. There is increasing anecdotal and informal evidence on the nature and extent of cyberstalking, and research addressing offline stalking may provide insight into the scope of the problem. 

According to the most recent National Violence Against Women Survey, which defines stalking as involving instances where the victim felt a high level of fear:4

• One out of every 12 women (8.2 mil- lion) in the United States and 1 out of every 45 men (2 million) have been stalked at some time in their lives.

• One percent of all women and 0.4 per- cent of all men had been stalked dur- ing the 12 months preceding the survey.

• Women are far more likely than men to be victims of stalking—nearly 80 percent of stalking victims are women. Men are far more likely to be stalkers, comprising 87 percent of the stalkers identified by victims partici- pating in the survey.

• Women are twice as likely as men to be victims of stalking by strangers and eight times as likely to be victims of stalking by intimates.

In the United States today, more than 80 million adults and 10 million children have access to the Internet. Assuming the proportion of cyberstalking victims is even a fraction of the proportion of persons who have been the victims of offline stalking, there may be potentially tens or even hundreds of thousands of victims of cyberstalking incidents each year in the United States.

Cyberstalking Resources Online CyberAngels: A nonprofit group devoted to assisting victims of online harassment and threats,

including cyberstalking: www.cyberangels.org.

GetNetWise: An online resource for families and caregivers to help kids use the Internet in a safe and educational manner. It includes a guide to online safety, a directory of online safety tools, and directions for reporting online trouble: www.getnetwise.org.

National Center for Victims of Crime: Through its toll-free national hotline, the center provides vic- tims with referrals to the nearest appropriate services in their community, including crisis counseling and support groups, advocacy services, and assistance with the criminal justice process. The center publishes bulletins on a number of topics, including domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking: www.ncvc.org.

National Cybercrime Training Partnership: This interagency Federal/State/local partnership, led by the Justice Department with extensive support from the Office of Justice Programs and the National White Collar Crime Center, is developing and delivering training to Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies on how to investigate and prosecute computer crime. Information about the partnership can be found through its Web site: www.cybercrime.org.

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse: This nonprofit consumer information and advocacy program offers consumers a unique opportunity to learn how to protect their personal privacy. Its services include a consumer hotline for reporting privacy abuses and for requesting information on ways to protect pri- vacy and fact sheets on privacy issues, including one entitled Are You Being Stalked? Tips for Your Protection: www.privacyrights.org.

Search Group, Inc.: SEARCH, The National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics, provides assistance to State and local criminal justice agencies on information technology issues. SEARCH, through its National Technical Assistance and Training Program, provides comprehensive, hands-on training on computer crime investigations at its headquarters in Sacramento, California, and at regional training sites around the country: www.search.org.

Working to Halt Online Abuse (WHOA): Founded by women to educate the Internet community about online harassment, WHOA empowers victims of online harassment and develops voluntary poli- cies that systems administrators can adopt to create an environment free of online harassment. WHOA educates the online community by developing Web site resources, including the creation of a safe- and unsafe-site list to enable users to make informed decisions and providing information about how users can protect themselves against harassment: www.haltabuse.org.