Photo By Rachel Larue | Sara McCauley, victim advocate coordinator, talks during a roundtable discussion, in...... read more read more
JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. - How to define and identify stalking in the digital age makes it difficult for law enforcement to prosecute when such violations occur via the Internet.
Those were some of the problems discussed by Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall victim advocates and law enforcement officials during an Army Community Service-organized roundtable discussion Jan. 12 in Bldg. 201 at the Fort Myer portion of JBM-HH.
Stalking is generally defined as a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear and is a crime in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and all U.S. territories, according to the National Center for Victims of Crime.
Attendees discussed exactly how identifying and prosecuting stalking is further complicated by the use of social media, as well as the challenges joint base law enforcement and ACS Family Advocacy Program victim advocates face when seeking to protect victims and prosecute offenders.
For JBM-HH law enforcement, the challenge lies in figuring out exactly which jurisdiction a case falls to because of the uncertainty where a crime was actually committed. Capt. Chris Miller, chief of detectives at JBM-HH, says proving who is behind the keyboard complicates prosecution.
“The issue is jurisdictions and how the military controls...what they have on a military base, and then what jurisdiction we have as MPs or agents on this base,” said Miller. “Service members in the National Capital Region are distributed around several jurisdictions, making it hard for JBM-HH law enforcement to reach an agreement on how to handle stalking because there are so many different law enforcement agencies around the area.”
For example, if a Soldier who lives with his or her spouse in Montgomery County, Md., sends threatening messages from a phone or computer while on JBM-HH, law enforcement on base may not be in charge of the case because the message was opened in another jurisdiction, according to Miller.
The most challenging cases arise when cyber-stalking is involved because most victims associate it with a form of emotional abuse and often don’t recognize that they are being stalked, according to Lindsay Seals, domestic violence victim advocate.
“A lot of times, especially with women, they are more likely to be afraid of reporting the stalking charge,” said Miller. “They’ll report an assault, but it usually isn’t after the first time.”
The Uniform Code of Military Justice allows military police to find and arrest service members away from the installation, but it is often only after a physical altercation happens that stalking charges are brought up, and even then they are only as additions to assault charges, said Miller.
Currently, Maryland and Washington, D.C. support military protective orders issued to keep victims safe by providing their law enforcement agencies with the necessary technology to cross-reference available data. Virginia, however, lacks the capabilities and procedures to access and monitor military protection orders off base, said Miller.
Though cyber-stalking is defined in legal terms all across the U.S., older generations of law enforcement managers will not incorporate social media into stalking cases the way younger generations in the future will, said Miller.
“The majority of police management – the 45 and above crowd – we get social media; we probably even use it to a degree, but we won’t understand it like the 25 and under crowd does,” said Miller. “It isn’t an everyday facet in our lives. The generation that will be managers in 15 to 20 years, that’s where we will see a growth in social media in law enforcement. Young people associate their lives with social media.”
Miller also predicted that other social trends in domestic violence will also see growth in the future from the next generation, specifically within the military and including cases involving lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) service members. He said there is a lack of data collection within the Department of Defense regarding domestic violence trends in the LGBT military community.
“We need to look at same-gender relationships, stalking and assaults for the future,” he said. “If suddenly there is a rise in same-gender victims down the road, but no data to consider it an ‘at-risk’ group, then the resources may not be there for when the service member seeks help.”
Roundtable participants agreed that although there is training available on recognizing LGBT-specific stalking and domestic violence, more work could be done to study patterns in domestic violence within the DoD.
“Documenting these incidences would help us organize more resources,” said Sara McCauley, victim advocate coordinator. “And being able to tailor those resources to [the LGBT] population if they are higher risk, could help with prevention.”
The roundtable was part of an on-going series of ACS-facilitated discussions among JBM-HH leaders, counselors, advocates and others to help better identify challenges and individual roles in family advocacy issues, such as domestic violence.
The next roundtable discussion will take place March 20 at the Andrew Rader U.S. Army Health Clinic. The topic of discussions will be the role of healthcare providers in identifying and assisting victims of domestic violence.
| Date Taken: | 01.08.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 01.15.2015 13:57 |
| Story ID: | 152066 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 61 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, JBM-HH roundtable addresses digital stalking, ties to intimate partner violence, by Damien Salas, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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