NCJ Number
199526
Date Published
2003
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This chapter identifies reasons why the Internet has become such a burgeoning arena for previously latent or suppressed deviant behavior and outlines the themes of subsequent chapters in this book.
Abstract
Anonymity, disembodiment, outreach, and speed are the hallmarks of Internet communication; combined, they can make users feel daring, liberated, and infallible. Because cyberspace allows anonymity, participants can present themselves as multi-gendered, gender ambiguous, or gender free. Given that socio-cultural, moral, and technological constraints tend to bind women more restrictively than men, it is interesting to note how women are using computer-mediated communications to transgress conventional expectations of "acceptable" femininity and assert their needs and desires in ways that in visible public life would expose them to accusations of deviance and depravity. The chapter illustrates this concept in discussing women's use of online pornography. This is followed by an outline of the themes of the book. First the Internet is virtually impossible to censor, thus increasing the possibility that users will both encounter and produce harmful images and communications. Second, the Internet has the capacity to be interactive in a distinctive way, such that the motives, attitudes, and perspectives of users impact multitudes of other users, with the potential to lower the norms of ethical and moral behavior among users. This chapter concludes with a summary of each of the remaining chapters. 2 notes