By David Simms, Senior Contributor
The Global Institute for Cyber Safety and Standards
Today
we proudly publish for syndication this week's installment of our
featured columnist, Anna Kavanaugh, and her brilliant column, Cyber
Abuse: The Virtual Violent Crime. This is Series Piece 11 and an
excellent read in her column series. Anna's is a distinctive and ardent
voice of expertise and wisdom in defining and describing what she
rightly deems a global pandemic of virtual confusion whereby a societal
breakdown of empathy and compassion confuse and pose serious threat to
legal boundaries and civilised conduct. In this piece she expertly discusses how our society victimizes its victims and how our current online civilization enables cyber-abusers to reign over the life of their target for years, and the residual traumatic effects to a victim, including the common diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder leading many victims to fulfill suicide. It is
our honour to now present you with another perceptive and powerful
installment of Anna's weekly column. Comments are open on the full
article page for feedback and to encourage discussion.
Cyber Abuse: The Virtual Violent Crime. (Series Piece 11)
Written by Anna Kavanaugh, Syndicated Columnist
Published for syndication by: The Global Institute for Cyber Safety and Standards (GICSS)
The virtual violent crime of
cyber-abuse is about dehumanization. Cyber-abusers aim to kill. They do this by
exploiting social media platforms to relentlessly assault the self-esteem and
dignity of their victim, and by launching deliberate “kill campaigns” designed
to assassinate the reputation, career, livelihood, relationships, and overall
life of their target. It is not a singular event and allows abusers to reign
over their victims in the public domain for years. The residual effects of such
a campaign also creates ongoing trauma and damage as the planted false
realities and blatant lies about a victim can be indefinitely preserved on the
internet and available for perpetual access and propagation.
Click Here to Continue Reading Full Column
It is an ugly truth. Our society
victimizes its victims. To face that reality is a heavy cross to bear. That’s
why we don’t.
This is the real world. We all
know it can be rough. We are taught that to survive it we just have to learn
to take a punch and turn the other cheek more often than not. Sage advice but
it neglects to acknowledge the certitude that there are only so many hits a
person can take before they break. This is real life. And if you have been
targeted by a cyber-abuser, you already know they will go to any length to end
yours.
When revictimization is
discussed it is generally in reference to the recurrence of extreme personal
violations seen in survivors of rape, sexual abuse, and domestic assault cases.
Those are the instances that get most talked about, as they should.
Unfortunately, our social and judicial system is geared for the revictimization
of victims in a myriad of other circumstances as well and, because it is, too
many of them are falling through the cracks.
It happens with victims of
voyeurism. Not only does a victim suffer the initial discovery and resulting
trauma in realizing their most intimate moments have been videotaped or
recorded, they are made to suffer it multiple times. The police become involved
and countless officers watch the evidence as do the victim’s attorney and
legal team. The details of that evidence are spelled out in court documents and then the victim must recount it as it is replayed again at trial only this
time, they must do so in the company of the very offender who so grievously violated
them. Similarly, this is also what rape victims must endure. These are just two
extreme examples to demonstrate the ongoing trauma and psychological damage
that our system, by its very nature, imposes on victims seeking justice,
remedy, and relief for the criminal offenses committed against them.
