A situational crime prevention approach to cyberstalking victimization: Preventive tactics for Internet users and online place managers

Cyberstalking is a specialized form of stalking, which takes place in cyberspace using Internet capable tools. The stalking behavior is carried out using a variety of electronic communication methods across different online domains. These include emails, instant messenger (IM) messages, blog posts, text messages and any other form of electronic communication which is persistent, annoying, alarming or threatening to the victim. Although the more traditional offline forms of stalking have begun to receive some attention by researchers over the last decade, cyberstalking is still little known, largely because the Internet has only made such activities possible in recent years. Limiting its occurrence may be accomplished by limiting opportunities for potential stalkers to gain access to their victims. The techniques of situational crime prevention are ideal for this task, and have proven successful in limiting opportunities for different kinds of crime across a wide range of situations. Tactics for Internet users and place managers are discussed.