NCJ Number
180444
Journal
ABA Journal Volume: 85 Dated: December 1999 Pages: 51-54
Date Published
December 1999
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents and Federal prosecutors say that judges' reluctance to impose stiff sentences on people who commit stalking over the Internet undermines the efforts of undercover Internet investigations; the case of Georges Debeir exemplifies the reasons that judges depart from the Federal sentencing guidelines.
Abstract
Georges Debeir befriended adolescent females he met in Internet chat rooms over a 2-year period. He often promised gifts and money in exchange for sexual favors. Eventually he asked someone named Kathy to meet him. However, Kathy was an undercover FBI agent working for Innocent Images, a computer crimes unit that targets sexual predators and child pornographers on the Internet. The judge cited the victimless nature of Debeir's crime as a rationale for departing from the sentencing guidelines. Innocent Images is a $10-million-per-year program that has experienced a caseload increase of more than 550 percent in the last 2 years. FBI agent Jorges Martinez reports that cyber stalkers are mostly white males ages 25-45 years. Few have criminal records; many have advanced degrees and come from high socioeconomic backgrounds. Defense attorneys say that low sentences may reflect judges' discomfort with the nature of the FBI sting operations. Martinez supports the tactics and notes that the FBI is investigating a new type of stalker, who can flourish due to the computer age. A representative of the National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse believes that the way to resolve the controversy is the educate judges about the seriousness of the problem of child exploitation on the Internet. Photographs