Technology has limited the interactions victims experience with their offenders. A robbery can be
stealing company information or files without leaving their home. While the name stays
the same, the description and actions are not. The actions are still illegal such as threats online
equivalate to in-person threats, but tracking the offender can become more difficult. In-person
crimes can typically be identified easier as a facial description or physical description can be
given such as height or build. Online the criminals are anonymous and can create many
different accounts and profiles if needed to commit these acts. Many would not break into a
school to try and steal money. However, there are reports and data on how schools have been
targeted online resulting in the schools losing millions of dollars. Therefore, these different
attack methods have changed how we must approach these situations.
The government has implemented cyber engineers to try and help because police officers are not
equipped with the knowledge of how to proceed with these types of criminal actions. Questions have been raised about whether cybercrimes should be grouped with physical crimes or labeled as a new type of crime due to this. Due to the hackers and threats being
anonymous, it can take more time, effort, and specific knowledge to catch these types of
criminals. It is unlikely a foreign member will come to the States just to harass one specific
person, but online that is not an issue. The whole world is grouped and police
departments on every block do not change the treatment and prevention of online violence. Some
believe that because people are not meeting face to face or in person, it takes away the thought of harming someone as you do not see them as a person just someone on a screen.