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I. INTRODUCTION
The American criminal justice system is on the cusp of a potential domestic violence crisis. The United States has made progress in combating domestic violence in the last thirty years, primarily by recognizing that domestic violence is a crime and one that should be prosecuted. This progress is at risk of being undennined by the intersection of two recent developments: first, teenagers normalizing unhealthy relationship patterns through pervasive use of technology and second, law enforcement's inability to adequately respond to cyberstalking. The combination of these two trends suggests that American society is producing a whole new generation of domestic violence batterers.
Several recent studies have found that nearly all teenagers are using technology - primarily cell phones and text messaging - and using it to a staggering degree. More importantly, teenagers are incorporating technology into the formation of their sexual identities and the patterns of their intimate relationships.2 The incorporation of this pervasive technology use into normal teenage development is occurring largely without adult supervision or modeling.3 Teenagers' use of technology has reduced or changed their expectations of privacy in their intimate relationships, normalizing a "boundarylessness" which may make them more accepting of - and more at risk from - abusive behaviors by their intimate partners. Given the well-documented prevalence of domestic violence in teenage relationships,4 the damaging impact of violence during these formative relationships,5 and the effectiveness of technology as a tool for domestic violence,6 America is facing a crisis in its efforts to combat domestic violence. Our emerging adult population is normalizing unhealthy relationship patterns while embracing technology, which has become an effective tool for establishing power and control imbalances in those relationships.
The criminal justice system has yet to develop an effective response to cyberstalking. Technology provides increasingly sophisticated ways for batterers to stalk their intimate partners and avoid detection, apprehension, and prosecution. The centrality of stalking and cyberstalking to domestic violence is well-established. Twenty-six percent of stalking victims report being stalked through the use of some form of technology, such as e-mail, instant messaging (LM), or monitoring through global positioning systems (GPS), Spyware, or digital surveillance.7 Although stalking and cyberstalking are chronically under-reported, the connection between stalking and violence is clear: 80% of all stalking of intimate partners...