Anonymous Threatening Communications

The online environment has offered many opportunities for positive interactions, from social support to keeping people connected and entertained. However, it can also facilitate much negative behaviour, which can cause all sorts of consequences and pain to those who experience them. Behaviour such as extortion, threatening communication, (sexual) harassment, stalking, and bullying are becoming more and more common online and can easily escalate by a perpetrator in an anonymous and for that person safe environment (online disinhibition). Such types of online, or a combination between on- and offline, threats are strongly increasing. This presentation will give further insights into the problem but also in the solution and the role behavioural threat assessments have in profiling, discovering the individual and follow up with perpetrator and victim.