ASSIGNMENT #2: ANALYSIS OF AN ONLINE CRIME

Assignment in Soc167 about Disinhibition.

Due: Friday October 4^th

Article: SUNY Student Faces Internet Extortion and Cyber Stalking Charges (University Herald) supported by Former GW Student Arrested for Cyberstalking, Internet Extortion (In The Capital).

Short summary

A 21-year-old man, Adam Savader, science student at the State University of New York, was in april 2013 arrested for doing cyberspace crime and internet extortion. He sent a lot of text messages to 15 young girls where he told them that he had nude pictures of them on his computer, and he constantly pushed them to send more photos of themselves. He threatened them by saying that if they did not respond and send him the pictures he was asking for, he would send the pictures he already had to the girl´s familiy and friends. He also asked them a lot of inappropriate and personal questions. Mr. Savader currently faces up to 5 years in prison.

The particular causes of this disinhibition.

While reading the article, it is clear that the criminal was motivated by disinhibition. What I identify as the particular causes of this disinhibition is two of the six factors John Suler discribed in his article «The Online Disinhibition Effect». Adam Savader pretended to be «John Smith» when he texted the girls, and by doing that he was «dissociative anonymious». No one could identify him. He used Google Voice, which is a large Internet service provider, to comumunicate with the girls, and this makes it even harder for other people to verify him.

Another factor that motivated Mr. Savader was «Invisibility». By sending text messages, he does not have to worry about his look, how he appears and how he sounds. The criminal was really agressive on the messages. For instance, he wrote to one girls a text like this: «Do it from ur phone RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! I swear to god don’t be stupid. U don’t want every1 [sic] including your parents seeing your tits ass and pussy». It is hard to believe that Savader whould have acted in this way if he was in a direct conversation with the girl.

This may also indicate that the criminal starting to be sexually frustrated and have desperate needs.

All in all, the victims did not become victims because they also where disinhibited. Anyway, one of the mentioned girls in the article had uploaded nude pictures of her self on her AOL account, and the criminal had hacked into her account and then found the pictures. She did not publish the pictures in a public place, but still; when you first upload something on the internet, there are a lot of smart people out there who easilly can find everything. When Savader found this pictures, he has a lot to use against her and of course she will be one of the victims.

Written by

Kristine Brenna, CE student.

Links:
- http://www.universityherald.com/articles/3311/20130524/suny-student-internet-extortion-cyber-stalking-charges.htm#TLUasr4tmvfk6F3w.99
- http://inthecapital.streetwise.co/2013/04/24/former-gw-student-adam-savader-arrested-for-cyberstalking-internet-extortion/