The Cyber Effect Read Online Free PDF Page A

bother looking so closely at one specific population online? By studying the extreme effects of technology on fringe or unusual behavior, we begin to see more clearly the implications of the cyber environment for all of us. As a forensic cyberpsychologist, I’ve seen this demonstrated time and again: Whenever technology comes in contact with an underlying predisposition, or tendency for a certain behavior, it can result in behavioral amplification or escalation.
    I would argue that tendencies and vulnerabilities that cause the most distress in real life may become even more of a battle online. That goes for any behavior.
    If these tendencies aren’t destructive or risky, the impact can be fairly benign. If someone just loves to visit online forums for gardeners, there isn’t much that’s self-destructive about that. But there are many incidences of risky behavior becoming much riskier online, especially pathological and criminal behavior. Here’s an example of what I mean: A stalker in the real world typically focuses on one victim at any given time, but a cyberstalker can stalk multiple victims simultaneously because technology makes that possible.Cyberstalking is considered an evolution of a real-world criminal behavior. Cyberspace is a breeding ground for mutations. Real-world behavior migrates there and escalates or accelerates. This can sometimes have serious implications in the real world.
A Case of Cranking
    Jordan Haskins had grand dreams of making a difference in sparsely populated Saginaw County, Michigan, his hometown. The pale, clean-cut twenty-three-year-old man described himself as “pro-life, pro-family, pro-freedom, and pro-faith.” In the summer of 2014, while still a student at Maranatha Baptist University,he announced he was running for political office, hoping to serve as a state representative to Michigan’s 95th District. He posed for his campaign website photograph with the best smile he could muster, his image superimposed on a background of a billowing American flag, a sepia-toned Declaration of Independence, and artwork that appeared to be the three crosses of Calvary, synonymous with crucifixion, in dark outline.
    The Republican candidate said his love of history, philosophy, religion, and politics had led him to run for office—and give back to society. He’d realized that his gift was for government.
    “I’ve found my niche,” he said, “my passion.”
    He had other passions, as it turns out. Before his campaign was fully under way, he found himself needing to explain his criminal record. He had been charged and pleaded guilty to four violations of trespassing on private and public property and unlawful use of government vehicles during a period of ten months in 2010 and 2011.
    When interrogated by police at the time of his arrest, Haskins admittedthat he had twice broken into a government yard where a mosquito-control pickup truck and sheriff’s cruiser were parked in order to pull the spark-plug wires loose on the vehicles, sit in the front seat of the cars, and masturbate while listening to the engines sparking.
    This behavior is called “cranking,” he explained to police. He was sentenced to one year and eight months in prison in 2011. Parole was lifted just eleven days prior to the election. “I was in a messed-up state of mind mentally and emotionally when I did what I did,” the candidate told the local media when asked in 2014 about his felony convictions. “That’s the only way I can even explain it.”
    Cranking?
What on earth possessed him to jump the fence into the police department parking lot, break into a car, and the rest…
    “It was just the fun and the risk and the thrill,” Haskins said.
    And how had he discovered this bizarre fetishistic behavior?
    “I read about it online.”
Anatomy of a Fetish
    At the back of New Age shops and hippie stores, next to the incense and patchouli oil, you’ll find shelves of little carvings for sale. Inspired by the