Stalking in Cyberspace

Stalking in Cyberspace John M. Deirmenjian, MD The Internet has revolutionized communication on a global level while creating a medium for stalking. Cyberstalking has emerged as a new form of stalking behavior. While 10 states have passed laws against electronic harassment, there has been great debate about whether electronic stalking constitutes criminal behavior or whether a perpetrator is entitled First Amendment protection. In the psychiatric literature to date, there are no studies of cyberstalking. This article focuses on relevant cases of stalking on the Internet. Specific legal issues associated with cyberstalking, such as boundary laws and freedom of speech, are examined. The psychological profile of the cyberstalker, as well as methods of intervention, are discussed. The Internet is an international computer crimes such as cyberstalking. Other cy- network that has pioneered a new me- berspace crimes such as computer hack- dium for communication known as cyber- ing, child pornography, pedophilia, and space. By the year 2000, it is estimated hate crimes are often mistaken for cyber- that 40 million people in the United States stalking in the popular literature and the alone will be sending 60 billion electronic media. messages annually. ' Cyberstalking refers to harassment on Cyberspace law is developing as a mul- the Internet using various modes of trans- tidisciplinary specialty that encompasses all mission such as electronic mail (e-mail), cases, statutes, and constitutional provisions chat rooms, newsgroups, mail exploders, that impact persons and institutions in and the World Wide Web. Cyberstalkers cyberspace. The distinct components of can obtain personal information about cyberspace law include jurisdiction, free- their victims, such as home addresses or dom of expression, intellectual property, phone numbers. After obtaining this per- privacy, safety, equity, and electronic sonal information, cyberstalkers then ~ommerce.~ have the ability to meet their victims in Safety issues of cyberspace law include person. CyberAngels, an affiliate of the Guardian Angels, offers an online de- Dr. Deirmenjian is a Forensic Psychiatry Fellow in the Dept. of Psychiatry, Case Western Reserve University scription of the stalking phenomenon on School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH, and a Rappeport the Internet, which includes the follow- Fellow of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. This paper was presented at the 29th Annual ing: malice, premeditation, repetition, Meeting of the American Academy of Psychiatry and distress, obsession, vendetta, no legiti- the Law, New Orleans, LA, October 22, 1998. Address correspondence to: John M. Deirmenjian, MD, Forensic mate purpose, directed toward an individ- Psychiatry, University Hospitals, 11100 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH 44106. E-mail: jdeirmen@ ual, disregarded warnings to stop, harass- earthlink.net ment, and threat.3 J Am Acad Psychiatry Law, Vol. 27, No. 3, 1999 407 Deirmenjian Four basic motivations for stalking on through an anonymous remailer (an on- the Internet include sexual harassment, line service that masks the sender's iden- love obsession, hatelrevenge vendettas, tity). The messages included phrases, and powerlego trips.4 such as "You'd better watch your back," This article will introduce cyberstalk- "Let's get it on bitch," and "I'm your ing as a phenomenon and present specific worst nightmare." After Hillyard's Inter- cases of Internet harassment. net service provider canceled his account, Armistead-Smathers began receiving Relevant Cases messages from the Centers for Disease Stalking on the Internet. Case 1 Control and Prevention in Atlanta where Andrew Archambeau was charged with Hillyard worked. She then received thou- the misdemeanor of stalking a school sands of messages from men who had teacher whom he had met on a video seen a posting of a nude woman (pre- dating ~ervice.~After five days, the sumed to be Arrnistead-Smathers), which teacher realized that she was not inter- listed her e-mail address and offered pros- ested in pursuing a relationship. Archam- titution during the Olympics. Out of fear, beau, however, persisted and sent her (the she moved three times that year, changed teacher) approximately 20 e-mail mes- her phone number frequently, and began sages. When the e-mails were traced to to carry a licensed concealed weapon. Archambeau, he responded that his "call- The police informed her that there was er ID" showed that someone from her little they could do, until she received an area was ringing and hanging up and that anonymous message from someone say- he perceived it as her shy manner of ex- ing that he had followed her 5-year-old pressing interest. She denied the claim daughter and her from the post office box and went to the police after he left a to their home. Hillyard was charged with message on her answering machine say- stalking and later acknowledged getting ing that he had watched her leaving work. He argued that pursuing his romantic in- into an online argument with Arrnistead- Smathers but denied sending the messag- terest via e-mail was nonthreatening, be- 0 cause e-mail messages can be ignored by es." the recipient. However, Michigan's anti- Case 3 Jayne Hitchcock filed a $10 stalking law prohibits nonconsensual con- million lawsuit against the Woodside Lit- tact via electronic communications.6 erary Agency (Woodside) of New York Archambeau pleaded no contest to the claiming defamation and harassment.' charges and was sentenced to a year's She had answered an e-mail advertise- probation and ordered to undergo a psy- ment posted by the agency. In its re- chiatric e~aluation.~ sponse, Woodside asked Hitchcock for a Case 2 Cynthia Armistead-Smathers monetary fee and additional payments be- of Georgia received obscene e-mails from fore it would represent her. The up-front the account of Richard ~ill~ard.'She fees raised her suspicion because legiti- then began receiving messages sent mate agents generally earn their money 408 J Am Acad Psychiatry Law, Vol. 27, No. 3, 1999 Stalking in Cyberspace after selling an author's work. So Hitch- hide the bodies of the people I had to cock (as well as other suspicious writers), kill." The messages ranged from claiming through posting in Internet newsgroups, Teresa Maynard as being unfaithful to informed other writers about possible one message in which the harasser stated, fraudulence. She claims that the company "I have a .45." Kevin Massey, a 30-year- targeted her for retaliation, defaming her old computer consultant with a criminal in its ads and subjecting her to a barrage record for burglary and weapons posses- of assaults. Among the incidents cited in sion, was identified as the harasser. Mas- Hitchcock's legal complaint: e-mail ac- sey claimed that he was responding to counts used by Hitchcock, her literary online attacks initiated by Maynard and agent, and her employer (the University his employers. However, Massey called of Maryland) were flooded with messages himself "The Cyberstalker" and even lob- (mail bombing); and inflammatory mes- bied to be a guest on Howard Stem's sages were posted in newsgroups under radio show. Hitchcock's name. A sexually oriented Case 5 In the United States' first suc- posting made under Hitchcock's name in- cessful prosecution of a hate crime on the cluded her address and phone number, Internet, Richard Machado, a former stu- which led to a series of unusual phone dent at the University of California, Ir- calls, unsolicited magazine subscriptions, vine, was convicted of violating the civil and at least one suspicious package that rights of 59 mostly Asian students by contained incense. Although Hitchcock sending threatening e-mail messages contacted the local police and the FBI, it (signed "Asian hater").". l2 His message was unclear how the author could prove stated, "I personally will make it my her allegations because no actual threat [life's work] to find and kill everyone had been made against her. It would also [sic] of you personally. OK. That's how prove difficult to track the tormentors determined I am. Do you hear me?" He who had altered their e-mail account in- threatened to kill them if they did not formation to conceal their identity. The withdraw their enrollment from school. Jayne Hitchcock legal fund was estab- Initially, a jury was deadlocked nine to lished, and Jayne Hitchcock testified be- three in favor of acquittal. After serving a fore a Maryland subcomittee on behalf of year in jail and undergoing a second trial, a bill to punish instigators of e-mail ha- he was fined $1,000 and was given one rassment in the state of ~ar~land.*.g year of probation, which prohibited his Case 4 Robert and Teresa Maynard, use of the university computer laborato- who helped found Internet America, Dal- ries. 10, 1 I His attorney argued that the las's largest Internet access provider, dis- threat was a "classic flame" (online slang covered harassing messages posted on an for an angry message that is more annoy- Internet new~~rou~.'~Most of the mes- ing than harmful). However, many dis- sages closed with the same poem: "Lord turbed recipients of the e-mail message grant me the serenity to accept the things were prepared to arm themselves with I cannot change.. and the wisdom to pepper spray, became suspicious of J Am Acad Psychiatry Law, Vol. 27, No. 3, 1999 409 Deirmenjian strangers, and refused to go out alone in percent of their sample qualified for a the dark. personality disorder diagnosis, including Case 6 Jake Baker, a student at the antisocial, schizoid, borderline, avoidant, University of Michigan, was arrested by paranoid, and personality disorder not FBI agents on February 9, 1995 and otherwise specified. They noted, how- charged with "transmitting threats across ever, that in comparison with a random state lines" to a pseudonymous Arthur group of mentally disordered offenders, Gonda.I3 The charge came about after it obsessional followers more frequently was discovered that Baker had posted an have a Cluster B diagnosis other than erotic fantasy on the Internet in which he antisocial personality disorder.

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