Internet Predators 'Emerging' Criminals
Published: October 22, 2006 01:54 am Internet predators ‘emerging’ criminals Increasingly common on sites popular among young people By Mallory Panuska Times West Virginian FAIRMONT — Within the last several years, the Internet has become a prominent source for a copious amount of useful and beneficial information. However, along with every positive phenomenon, there typically comes some negative side effects. One of these side effects is the emergence of Internet predators. A group of disturbed adults who frequent the Worldwide Web looking to prey on children and teens to feed inappropriate and illegal sexual fantasies, Internet predators are becoming increasingly common in online chat rooms, blogs and Web sites popular among youths nationwide. “It’s an emerging crime,” said Lawrence Nichols, associate professor and chair of the Division of Sociology and Anthropology at West Virginia University. Nichols, who specializes in the study of white collar crime, crime and deviance, and social crime, said as the Internet becomes more popular, these types of disturbed criminals will continue to emanate. “Electronic and Internet behaviors are going to surface. The Internet is a new category, a new phenomenon, and it has changed the world in which we live in many ways,” he added. “As our lives become more mediated by the Internet and the Worldwide Web, these things are going to be emerging. The same way you have electronic commerce, you’re going to have electronic crime.” According to Crisis Connection, a nonprofit group out of Indiana that serves victims of domestic and sexual violence, Internet predators are typically 94-96 percent male and range in age from 13 to 65 years of age. This group’s Web site goes on to explain that 12.5 percent of these male offenders are married, 1.5 percent are divorced and 86 percent are single. Nichols agreed that judging from reports he has read, perpetrators who have been caught illegally soliciting youths on the Internet seem to fit into these basic demographics. “It seems to be somewhat middle-aged males from reports,” he said. “Females go on, too, though. They are usually looking to date and searching for contact.” Generally, Crisis Connection also classifies these offenders as polymorphous, meaning they will prey on anyone and anything. It then went on to state that the predators are generally very ritualistic and spend much of their time going to incredible lengths to locate and groom their prey. The Web site goes on to classify these individuals into four basic categories — Collectors, Travelers, Manufacturers and Chatters — and lists various demographics and behaviors for the members of each of these groups. In many cases, Crisis Connection reported that these Internet predators have the room where they keep their computers stocked with cameras, extra film, Viagra, soda cans to urinate into, towels, lubricants, pictures of other children, fetish objects, props and souvenirs from past victims to feed their obsessions. According to the online Netsmartz Workshop, which serves as an educational safety resource provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, sexual predators frequent public chat rooms open to anyone and everyone on the Web and look for children to engage in conversations with. The Web site said the offenders target victims by first making contact and then working to develop friendship, emotional reliance and interest in sexual topics. If this draws the victim, the predator will initiate meeting the child offline for sexual relations or spend as much time as necessary coaxing the youth toward a sexual relationship. In some cases, the Web site added that these people have gone as far as sending bus tickets or money to cover travel costs for children to come and meet them. To catch these individuals, Nichols said law enforcement officials tend to use sting operations, such as those within MSNBC’s “To Catch a Predator” series. On this show, officials target online sexual predators in chat rooms by pretending to be a youth who wants to meet him or her in person. Then, when the offender shows up to meet the “child,” sometimes driving long distances and making grave efforts to do so, they arrest the individual for their attempted pedophilia. The program is then aired to show viewers the dangers that could arise from seemingly harmless Internet chatting. “It’s kind of like a blood sport,” said Nichols of the efforts made to catch offenders in these sting operations. As the age of information continues to take off and things become more technologically advanced with the passage of time, Nichols said it is important for people to pay attention to the possibility of Internet predators and make efforts to safeguard themselves from the dangers that could arise. “Given the Internet has only become available recently, this would have to be a growing problem,” he said. “In some cases, it’s not even a computer anymore because of things like hand-held wireless devices. With these things, more good things could happen on the Net, but it’s important to realize that more bad things could happen, too.” E-mail Mallory Panuska at mpanuska@timeswv.com. http://www.timeswv.com/intodayspaper/local_story_295015428.html?keyword=topstory