cyberbullying and law

As a Crime, Law and Justice major, many of my classes are law related. It is a common theme in these classes that the law is largely reaction based. New laws and policies arise as a response to some social phenomenon. These social phenomenons often complicate law. Old laws may not describe new crimes and offenders may be found innocent because the law is not specific to these new crimes. One example that stands out in my mind is cyberstalking. Cyberstalking is a new crime that is facilitated by the internet. In one case, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,314620,00.html, a teenage girl committed suicide after being dumped by a fictitious boy on MySpace. The boy’s identity was created by a mother of one of the victim’s friends. The mother purposely harassed and stalked this girl, ultimately resulting in her suicide. It seems obvious that the mother committed a crime and should receive some sort of punishment. However, the woman’s actions did not meet the criminal standards for harassment in the state of Missouri and no charges were ever filed. This case is tragic because a crime was obviously committed and there was no law in place to protect a minor. 45 states have since enacted cyberbullying legislation; two states are still pending legislation. This new legislation protects citizens from new crimes brought on by technology. However, this case just proves that our law will forever be reaction based and some citizens will have to suffer before new legislation is enacted.