[Air-L] crime statistics?

[Tuszynski, Stephanie]

A friend of mine, Allyson Beatrice, wrote a book that came out last month titled "Will The Vampire People Please Leave the Lobby?" (Allyson and I met through our mutual interest in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") The book is not a scholarly work, more a collection of anecdotal essays about Allyson's experiences in online fan groups, including The Bronze (subject of the documentary I made: http://www.dlfilms.com/irl/index.html).

She's been doing interviews this week and she's about ready to kill some of the interviewers who seem determined to try and compel her to say the Internet is just a big cesspool of pedophiles and rapists and so on. 

Are there any hard statistics on crime being perpetrated on the Internet? I'm not talking about identity theft or fraud or even possession of child porn, I'm talking about criminal activities like kidnapping and assault being perpetrated specifically through the net. My Web-fu is not coming up with anything other than a report from 1999 that is all percentages and no hard numbers. 

PS - the book is very funny, although Allyson takes some swipes at the Buffy fan/academics in the beginning. Worth a look for a non-academic perspective on the Internet in people's lives.

Stephanie Tuszynski
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Theatre and Film
University of Toledo