Cyber-Stalking Essay

Challenges our society faces from the digital age is cyber-stalking and cyber-harassment. The crime is not new but the tools, anonymity and ability to expand the reach to operate was brought by the digital age. There is a shift in society that disengages a person from their actions and the consequence. Social media has been a breeding ground of misconduct, where people feed off each other creating a mob mentality. The disengagement of their actions allows them to justify their behavior and as one convicted cyber-stalker stated, Patrick Macchione, he was "just talking to a computer" (Convicted Cyberstalker: UCF coed was never in danger, 2014). Stalkers, be it cyber or otherwise, are disconnected from reality.
The quoted cyber-stalker, Macchione, was convicted in 2012 of cyber-stalking Kristine Pratt whom he met in 2006
Cyber-stalking is defined in Florida as “means to engage in a course of conduct to communicate, or to cause to be communicated words, images, or language by or through the use of electronic mail or electronic communication, directed at a specific person, causing substantial emotional distress to that person and serving no legitimate purpose" (The 2016 Florida Statutes, 2016). Florida state laws does not require the threatening a victim to be charged with cyber-stalking. Macchione actions met Florida cyber-stalking criteria, was charged with and convicted of cyber-stalking. His sentence was 4 years with 2 years severed plus probation. In an article dated from 2014, Macchione blamed being on drugs, acid specifically, and that he “was only talking to a computer” (Convicted Cyberstalker: UCF coed was never in danger, 2014), he has failed to take accountability for his past actions; this attitude after he served his prison sentence and no longer on probation. It doesn’t look like he learned his