This book is an outstanding contribution to the interdisciplinary series on
Crime, Media, and Popular Culture from Praeger Publishers. Because of the
pervasiveness of media in our lives and the salience of crime and criminal
justice issues, we feel it is especially important to provide a home for scholars
who are engaged in innovative and thoughtful research on important crime
and mass media issues. It seemed essential to include a book in the series that
examined the dynamic nature of cybercrime.
Many of us have a limited knowledge of the crimes that occur in the world
of computers and the Internet, known as ‘‘cybercrimes’’ because they occur in
‘‘cyberspace.’’ These crimes run the gambit from scams and fraud to stalking
and even terrorism. These crimes have the potential for extraordinary impact
on the lives of individuals and on society as a whole. Although many people
fear street crimes involving face-to-face interactions with violent strangers,
they are unaware of the predatory possibilities of an e-mail solicitation.