Sexual Threats Stifle Some Female Bloggers - washingtonpost.com
The Washington Post Article referenced above
provides a clear portrait of how threatening
words and internet behaviors can deeply alter a
person's on line activities as well as their
personal lives.
Accounts of on-line predation of women engaged in
business or personal activities have occurred
prior to the early 1990's referenced in the
Washington Post article.
In the late 1980's, in Orange Country, California,
a woman who started a small on-line Christian prayer
group on Prodigy became a target for internet
harassment by on-line anti-Christians. What started
as veiled threats began to reference her home and
pets in detail. Upon returning home from a restaurant
dinner engagement, she found an email commenting
on the restaurant and her meal.
Cyberstalking transferred to US mail. She received
an enveloped containing a tear sheet from an obscure
communist newspaper showing that her name, address,
and unlisted telephone number had been published.
She then received postal mail that was a color sketch
of a beheaded woman on her back with the words
"We'll drink her blood and eat her flesh" written on it.
She contacted the FBI who opened a case. It was closed
without any arrests. Cyberlaw and cybercrimes
detectives were non-existent then, and the postal
mailings could not be traced. She still gives
occasional interviews decades later still not
completely free from various residual entanglements.
All of the women in the group became targets of the
same group of strangers who took issue with their
personal activities, beliefs, and expressed opinions.
Everyone's lives changed. One marriage broke up from
stress and two women developed anxiety disorders
that impaired their lives forever. One woman from
Philadelphia committed suicide, an act of desperation
believed by her family to be the result of being
relentlessly terrorized by strangers from the
internet who were able to penetrate deeply into her
psyche and her life.
The very term "threat" is often minimized. We often
say something is "only" a threat. But threats are
often a precursor to other acts of harm. Threats are
also a psychological element that accompanies harm
conducted in a methodical manner.
Gavin De Becker developed "The Threat Assessment
Scale." It can be found in his book, "The Gift of Fear."
It is the gold standard used by law enforcement and
private security firms. It is an excellent resource.
However, even psychiatrists cannot predict anyone's
future behavior with complete certainty or accuracy.
Many internet groups exist today for the sole purpose
of supporting people who are trapped in a life of
individual or group stalking and sophisticated
harassment - perpetrated by strangers who use the
internet in one way or another in these crimes.
The Washington Post article publicized a form of
individual terrorism that has threatened the
freedom and productivity of many women. Hopefully,
this will result in a more aware and prepared
internet public which will find defenses
and ultimately prevail over predators who
terrorize through the internet.
We must acknowledge what military
psychological experts have known for long time
which is the title of one of their reports.
"The Mind Has No Firewall."
