Although stalking has been a problem
for many years, only in this decade has it received adequate attention from
lawmakers, policy officials, and law enforcement agencies. In 1990, California
became the first state to enact a specific stalking law. Since that time,
all 50 states and the District of Columbia have enacted stalking laws. The
National Victim Center website
provides the most recent text of all state stalking laws.
Less than one third of the states
have anti-stalking laws that explicitly cover stalking via the internet. California,
for example, only recently amended its statute to cover cyberstalking in order
to prosecute a 50-year-old former security guard who pleaded guilty on April
28, 1999 to using the Internet to solicit the rape of a woman who rejected
his romantic advances.
Federal law provides some tools
to combat cyberstalking. Under 18 U.S.C. 875(c), it is a federal crime, punishable
by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, to transmit any
communication in interstate or foreign commerce containing a threat to injure
the person of another. Section 875(c) applies to any communication actually
transmitted in interstate or foreign commerce - thus it includes threats transmitted
in interstate or foreign commerce via the telephone, e-mail, beepers, or the
Internet.
The shortcomings of 18 U.S.C.
875 are evident from the dismissal of the Baker case. It is construed to apply
only to communications of actual threats; thus it does not apply in a situation
where a cyberstalker engaged in a pattern of conduct intended to harass or
annoy another (absent some threat). Also, it is not clear that it would apply
to situations where a person harasses or terrorizes another by posting messages
on a bulletin board or in a chat room encouraging others to harass or annoy
another person.
Certain forms of cyberstalking
also may be prosecuted under 47 U.S.C. 223. One provision of this statute
makes it a federal crime, punishable by up to two years in prison, to use
a telephone or telecommunications device to annoy, abuse, harass, or threaten
any person at the called number. The statute also requires that
the perpetrator not reveal his or her name. See 47 U.S.C. 223(a)(1)(C). Although
this statute is broader than 18 U.S.C. 875 -- in that it covers both threats
and harassment -- Section 223 applies only to direct communications between
the perpetrator and the victim. Thus, it would not reach a cyberstalking situation
where a person harasses or terrorizes another person by posting messages on
a bulletin board or in a chat room encouraging others to harass or annoy another
person. Moreover, Section 223 is only a misdemeanor, punishable by not more
than two years in prison.
The Interstate Stalking Act,
signed into law by President Clinton in 1996, makes it a crime for any person
to travel across state lines with the intent to injure or harass another person
and, in the course thereof, places that person or a member of that person's
family in a reasonable fear of death or serious bodily injury. See 18 U.S.C.
2261A. Although a number of serious stalking cases have been prosecuted under
Section 2261A, the requirement that the stalker physically travel across state
lines makes it largely inapplicable to cyberstalking cases.
Finally, President Clinton signed
a bill into law in October 1998 that protects children against online stalking.
The statute, 18 U.S.C. 2425, makes it a federal crime to use any means of
interstate or foreign commerce (such as a telephone line or the Internet)
to knowingly communicate with any person with intent to solicit or entice
a child into unlawful sexual activity. While this new statute provides important
protections for children, it does not reach harassing phone calls to minors
absent a showing of intent to entice or solicit the child for illicit sexual
purposes.
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