Cyber – Effects

Cyberstalking: Dangers on the Information Superhighway
By Trudy M. Gregorie, Director of Training
National Center for Victims of Crime, 2001

Effects

As with all stalking, the greatest trauma is the faceless terror that it brings into a victim’s life—24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Internet becomes an electronic curtain behind which the stalker hides while terrorizing the victim at home and work, with friends and neighbors, and with countless people that the victim does not even know.

Cyberstalkers may be located on the other side of the world, across the country, across the street, or in the next cubicle at work. They could be a former friend or lover, a total stranger met in a chat room, or simply a teenager playing a practical joke. The inability to identify the source of the harassment or threats is one of the most ominous aspects of this crime for a cyberstalking victim.

The fact that cyberstalking does not involve physical contact may create the misperception that it is less threatening or dangerous than physical stalking. Cyberstalking is just as frightening and potentially dangerous as a stalker at the victim’s front door. The psychological torment is very real, even in the absence of a distinct physical threat. It totally disrupts a victim’s life and peace of mind.

Cyberstalking presents a range of physical, emotional, and psychological trauma for the victim, who may begin to develop or experience:

• Sleep disturbances;
• Recurring nightmares;
• Eating pattern disturbances;
• Hypervigilance;
• High levels of stress;
• A feeling of being out of control; and/or
• A pervasive sense of the loss of personal safety.