Shapiro L.R. Cyberpredators and Their Prey

CRC Press, 2023. — 383 p. — ISBN: 978-0-367-55169-8.The online environment has emerged as a continuous and unfettered source of interpersonal criminal activity beyond physical boundaries. Cyber predators commit their crimes by employing the Internet and online services — social network platforms, online groups,s and organizations, smartphone apps, bulletin board systems, online forums, websites, and internet relay chat channels — to locate and harm victims of all ages through attacking, exploiting, humiliating, bullying, harassing, threatening, defrauding, and exhorting.Cyber predators and Their Prey describes non-sexual and sexual interpersonal crimes — online romance scams, swatting, trolling, stalking, bullying, harassment, minor sexting, sexual trafficking, child sexual abuse material, sextortion, and image-based sexual abuse offenses. Each chapter contains crime definition and relevant issues; typical cyber predator, motives, and methods; typical victims and behaviors that make them targets; current criminal laws for prosecuting cybercrimes and assessment of their applicability and effectiveness as deterrents; the crime’s impact on individual victims and society in general; and cybersecurity prevention and intervention strategies. Also covered are the unique challenges that the regulation, investigation, and prosecution of these cybercrimes pose to criminal justice and private security agents worldwide; the need for society to hold companies operating online responsible for their role in cybercrime; and how aspects of the online environment (i.e., anonymity, toxic disinhibition, de-individuation, inculpability) contribute to harmful and abusive interpersonal interaction, particularly when enacted by perpetrators as part of a group attack.Introduction: The Internet as a Criminal Enabler.
Online Romance Scammers.
Online Swatters.
Internet Trolls.
Cyberstalkers.
Cyberbullies and Cyber Harassers.
Minor Online Sexual Activity Offenders.
Online Domestic Commercial Sexual Traffickers.
Online Child Sexual Abuse Material Offenders.
Cyber Sextortionists.
Online Image-Based Sexual Abusers.
Combating Cyber predators through Education.