Essay Sample on Cyberstalking

Introduction

Cyberstalking is a criminal activity that involves the use of electronic communication to stalk or harass its targeted victims systematically. Cyberstalking is commonly known as online or internet stalking. However, the criminal practice can take other traditional forms to harass people offline. Cyberstalking is an emerging phenomenon; therefore, limiting its information availability which has influenced the lack of a unified legal approach. Regardless, different governments have established laws as an initiative to punish the cyberstalking perpetrators. Additionally, limited cyberstalking research has influenced the rise of different perceptions regarding the criminal act. According to Ahlgrim and Terrance (2018), male persons are considered perpetrators rather than victims of cyberstalking in most of the criminal activities.

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The different types of cyberstalkers include vindictive, intimate, composed, and collective. The vindictive cyber stalkers aim at causing psychological disorders through harassments while composed cyber stalkers focus on constantly annoying their targeted victims. Conversely, intimate cyber stalkers desire to form relationships with the victim; as a result, proclaim love to the targeted victims. Lastly, the collective cyber stalkers work as a group to harass their victims. In this regard, an instance of intimate cyberstalking entails the creation of a victim's profile on a dating website. The website with the fake profile contains offensive posts of explicit messages and indecent pictures of the victim. The motive of the suspect was avenging a failed relationship that had been previously established between the victim and the offender on the same dating website (Mutawa et al., 2016).

An additional cyberstalking scenario involves bank frauds which aim at falsely accusing and robbing the targeted victims. Bank frauds are a common target for cyberstalkers since they stand to attain financial gains or control of the victim's account as a strategy to frustrate the victims. Cyberstalkers gather required information regarding the technological identity of their victims which in most cases is based on personal information. These collected data is used to cancel credit cards and steal the victim's money. The effects of such cyberstalking acts include plummeted credit ratings, and destroyed relationships with friends and families resulting in torture and abuse. According to Mutawa et al. (2016), cyberstalking results in defamation when the offender conveys obscene information aimed at destroying the social interactions of the targeted victims.

The ramifications of cyberstalking vary relative to the victims' response-ability. These consequences include mental, economic, and social challenges. The existence of different coping strategies gives the victims an opportunity to amend their lives with the help of both legal and mental professionals. Coping strategies are vital since they effectively manage mental health impacts such as anxiety and depression. In this regard, Worsley et al. (2017), identified various measures of handling the adverse effects of cyberstalking, the strategies include ignorance of the offender, avoidant and confrontational coping, and reaching out for expert assistance.

Conclusion

Conclusively, cyberstalking involves deviant behaviors and tactics aimed at harassing, causing embarrassment and financial harm, as well as frightening and isolating the targeted victim. The rise in technological advancements has played an essential role in shaping cyberstalking tactics. However, the seriousness of the criminal activity has not influenced in any way the reporting rates of cyberstalking scenarios. The low rates of reported cyberstalking crimes are attributed to the lack of understanding of what constitutes cyberstalking crimes among targeted individuals in the community. Therefore, the government should introduce educative platforms where people can learn about the existing challenges and risks, they face especially in the current information age where internet is a critical component of everyday activities.

References

Ahlgrim, B., & Terrance, C. (2018). Perceptions of cyberstalking: Impact of perpetrator gender and cyber stalker/victim relationship. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 28, 320-339.

Mutawa, N., Bryce, J., Franqueira, V., & Marrington, A. (2016). Forensic investigation of cyberstalking cases using behavioural evidence analysis. Digital Investigation, 16, 96-103.

Worsley, J., Wheatcroft, J., Short, E., & Corcoran, R. (2017). Victims' Voices: Understanding the Emotional Impact of Cyberstalking and Individuals' Coping Responses. Sage Open, 7(2), 1-13.