Vol. 13 No. 5 (May 2003)
DOT.CONS: CRIME, DEVIANCE, AND IDENTITY ON THE INTERNET by Yvonne Jewkes (ed). Cullompton: Willan Press, 2003. 200 pp. Cloth, $59.95. ISBN: 1-84392-001-8.
Reviewed by Debora J. Halbert, Department of History and Political Science, Otterbein College. Email: dhalbert@otterbein.edu.
Since the early 1990s, the Internet has become an integral aspect of business, professional, personal, and academic communication. Internet access continues to grow, though the technology rich/poor gap is far from eliminated. Much has been made of the positive contributions of computer technology to modern life. The World Wide Web has created an information explosion and facilitated the construction of e-business, the formation of communications networks that would not have existed in the past, and the development of new social movements that utilize the computer as a means of communication and planning. The Internet has made traditional research easier, created new avenues for research, and it has made it possible to network with other professionals both nationally and internationally. Claims are made about the positive transformative impact of cyberspace on sexism and racism as individuals are able to leave their identities behind and interact on the computer free from prejudicial constraints. While there is no doubt these positive traits are part of the cyberspace revolution, numerous scholars have also focused upon the darker side of new communications technologies and the ways in which the Internet can be used to commit criminal acts and perpetuate deviant behaviors.
DOT.CONS: CRIME, DEVIANCE AND IDENTITY ON THE INTERNET, it would initially appear, is a text that focuses upon the darker side of the Internet. However, much more lays beneath the surface of this book than a survey of the types of crimes made possible in cyberspace. While the title is catchy, it does not do justice to the theoretical depth of many of the essays that appear in this volume. The book covers a broad range of issues and should especially be commended for attempting to investigate the theoretical implications of new identities made possible in cyberspace. The essays in this edited volume go beyond a description of computer-aided criminal life to investigate how the identities of computer users are constructed in ways that are deviant, gendered, or simply deceptive.
In their introductory chapter, Jewkes and Sharp suggest three themes that connect the essays. First, “social meanings of the Internet emerge from particular contexts and practices of usage” (p. 7). Second, identity on the Internet is not fixed to a tangible body, but is ephemeral (p. 8). Finally, because of the complexity of identity made possible by the Internet, regulation becomes even more difficult (p. 8). Importantly, issues of gender are highlighted in most chapters as the authors investigate how Internet users choose to construct gender, embrace and/or participate in “deviant” behavior, and develop on-line relationships. Ultimately, one gets the sense from reading these chapters that the Internet is many parallel universes where men can rate prostitutes for other possible punters (Chapter 3), buy brides (Chapter 5), cyberstalk women (Chapter 7) and engage in the virtually all-male practice of computer hacking (Chapter 8). However, the Internet also constructs spaces for women and men to investigate alternative sexual identities (Chapter 4) and develop networks of political resistance (Chapter 9). More “mainstream” cybercrimes such as identity theft help highlight how different our on-line identities are from our off-line identities (Chapter 6). Finally, the ethical issues surrounding research in an on-line environment must be assessed (Chapter 10). Ultimately, the breadth of the topics covered illustrates how complex and varied the use of the Internet has become, as well as highlights the implications this new terrain has for the construction of identities in the future.
The essays delving into the construction of on-line identities are perhaps some of the more compelling ones in the book. These essays recognize that deviance is a social construction and what constitutes deviant behavior may shift, as like-minded people are able to share their experiences. It would seem that sexual deviance, as defined in the mainstream world, is especially up for grabs on the Internet. Keith Sharp and Sarah Earle in their chapter “Cyberpunters and Cyberwhores: Prostitution on the Internet,” argue that the availability of websites where men can rate prostitutes serves to construct “countercultures, in which discreditable practices are accepted as the norm and are entirely without stigma, in which one may participate without threat to one’s ‘normal’ identity” (p. 39). In their view, the Internet has perpetuated and perhaps even enhanced the empowerment of men who pay for sex while at the same time creating a discursive space that perpetuates the more traditional relationship of power between the punter and the prostitute.
Heather DiMarco in her chapter, “The Electronic Cloak: Secret Sexual Deviance In Cybersociety,” also suggests that the Internet allows for the construction of spaces where individuals can explore otherwise sexually deviant behaviors. In DiMarco’s case, the evidence suggests that many women and men are willing to explore the possibilities of bisexuality within an Internet environment, behavior they would be less likely to consider in the “real” world. Both chapters illustrate the willingness of individuals to engage in an on-line exploration of behaviors considered sexually deviant in the “real” world because they can leave their everyday identities at the door. Thus, not only do these chapters tell us something about the way the Internet allows individuals to experiment with identity, but also help support the idea that identities are complex, multifaceted, and with the help of the Internet, not completely linked to a corporeal body.
The chapters in this book move beyond deviant behavior to provide information on how crime can be facilitated by computer-mediated communication. Again, there seems to be a special attention paid to gender, Gayle Letherby and Jen Marchbank argue in their article “Cyber-Chattels: Buying Brides and Babies on the Net,” that the Internet has facilitated the positioning of women and children as consumer items that can be purchased (p. 68). Additionally, they argue, that the Internet only serves to entrench “the power of existing social divisions” (p. 69). In fact, essays throughout this book provide evidence that the Internet merely takes traditional gender and economic structures and replays them in cyberspace. Thus, instead of providing a unique and equal playing field for all involved, the actual practices that can be traced on-line support the opposite conclusion – that the Internet merely extends the sexism and misogyny of the “real” world into the cyberworld.
It may be possible to track the perpetuation of sexism to the very people who are instrumental in designing the on-line world. Paul A. Taylor, in “Maestros or Misogynists? Gender and the Social Construction of Hacking,” details the forms of overt sexism and discrimination seemingly inherent in the virtually all-male hacking culture. Taylor comments on the fact that women within the mostly male hacker culture experience “relentless sexual harassment (p. 131).” He goes on to offer a psycho-sexual interpretation of hacking that draws upon a series of theorists who interpret cyberspace as a new “wild west” and hacking as “a sublimated form of masturbation or immature sexuality” (p. 135). Whether you agree with his analysis or not, this particular contribution helps examine the significant gender differences between male and female computer users and the types of environments created on-line.
This text is an important contribution to the literature on cyberspace and the construction of identity and deviance. The pieces are thoughtful and theoretically robust. However, space considerations seemed to govern the volume and most chapters moved too quickly through their arguments. Perhaps a more general conclusion discussing what these individual chapters tell us about cyberspace may have helped finish the project. Ultimately, though, the book is readable and engaging and has covered some interesting new intellectual ground.
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Copyright 2003 by the author, Debora J. Halbert.