Cyberstalking: a cause for police concern?

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Griffiths, M.D. ORCID: 0000-0001-8880-6524, 1999. Cyberstalking: a cause for police concern? Justice of the Peace, 163, pp. 687-689.

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Abstract

Stalking has been a high-profile crime in the 1990s leaving victims with a shattered sense of security and well-being. It now seems to be the case that stalkers are moving with the times and starting to harass and stalk in cyberspace. Eight million people in the UK currently have access to the Internet, and by 2005 it is estimated that half the nation will have access. As a direct result of this increased accessibility, the incidence of cyberstalking will almost certainly increase. Very recently the first prosecution case of cyberstalking or harassment by computer occurred in Los Angeles, when Gary Dellapenta a 50-year-old security guard was arrested for his online activities (Gumbel, 1999). Although such a phenomenon is by definition a global one, it was the Californian legal system which took the lead in an effort to combat it. It all began when Dellapenta was rebuffed by his 28- year-old victim Randi Barber. As a result of this rejection, Dellapenta became obsessed with Barber and placed adverts on the Internet under the names 'playfuIkitty4U' and 'kinkygal.30' claiming she was "into rape fantasy and gang-bang fantasy" (Gumbel, 1999). As a result of these postings, she started to receive obscene phone calls and visits by men to her house making strange and lewd suggestions.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Justice of the Peace
Creators:	Griffiths, M.D.
Publisher:	LexisNexis UK
Date:	1999
Volume:	163
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	EPrints Services
Date Added:	09 Oct 2015 10:52
Last Modified:	09 Jun 2017 13:43
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/19411