Cyber Stalking

Cyberstalking is a relatively new challenge for most law enforcement agencies. The first traditional stalking law was enacted by the state of California in 1990 Since that time, some law enforcement agencies have trained their personnel on stalking and/or established specialized units to handle stalking cases. Many agencies are still developing the expertise and resources to investigate and prosecute traditional stalking cases; only some of agencies throughout the country have focused attention or resources specifically on the cyberstalking problem.


Law enforcement response: awareness and training are key factors

Based on recent informal surveys of law enforcement agencies, it appears that the majority of agencies have not investigated or prosecuted any cyberstalking cases. However, some agencies – specially those with units dedicated to stalking or computer crime offenses - have large cyberstalking caseloads. The New York Police Department's Computer Investigation and Technology Unit and the Los Angeles District Attorney's Stalking and Threat Assessment Team estimate that 40 and 20 percent of their caseloads, involve cyberstalking-type cases.

The dissimilarity in the activity level among law enforcement agencies can be attributed to a number of factors. First, it appears that the majority of cyberstalking victims do not report the conduct to law enforcement, because they feel that the conduct has not reached the point of being a criminal offense. Another reason can be that law enforcement will not take them seriously. Second, most law enforcement agencies have not had the training to recognize the serious nature of cyberstalking and to investigate such offenses. Unfortunately, some victims have reported that rather than open an investigation, a law enforcement agency has advised them to come back if the cyberstalkers confront or threaten them offline. In several instances, victims have been told by law enforcement simply to turn off their computers.

Another indication that many law enforcement agencies underestimate the magnitude of the cyberstalking problem is the wide disparity in reported cases in different jurisdictions across the country. For example, one state attorney general's office in a midwestern state indicated that it received approximately one inquiry a week regarding cyberstalking cases and that it is aware of approximately a dozen prosecutions last year alone. In contrast, the state deputy general's offices in neighboring states indicated they have never received an inquiry into this type of behavior. Although one would generally expect some disparity in differing jurisdictions, the size of the disparity suggests that some law enforcement agencies do not have the training or expertise to recognize the magnitude of the problem in their jurisdictions.