Effects Of Swatting

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A recent string of crimes has happened numerous times throughout 2014 and 2015 that is highly dangerous (Louwagie, 2015), puts innocent citizens in danger of being injured or worse (Goldstein, 2014), wastes hundreds of thousands of dollars (Associated Press, 2015, FBI, 2013) that taxpayers have to foot the bill for (Burdo,2014), wastes large amounts of police officers’ time, and has gone mostly unpunished because of how easy it is to get away with because of “spoofing” technology (FBI, 2013). This crime wave is known as “swatting”. Swatting is generally making a fake call to law enforcement to try and “draw a response” from said law enforcement (usually a SWAT team raid on an innocent citizen’s home) (FBI, 2013). Swatters are able to find celebrities …show more content…
This crime has happened numerous times throughout the past decade, “[impacting] more than 100 victims” (Bookman, 2013) between 2002 and 2006 alone and multiple celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Tom Cruise, and Chris Brown (Clements, 2013), but has become highly popularized throughout 2014 and 2015. Recently, this string of crimes has been committed mostly against video game streamers (people who play video games live on a video broadcasting website such as Twitch.tv). There is a significant difference between swatting normal citizens or celebrities versus streamers in that streamers get swatted in front of a live audience of “hundreds” or “thousands” of people that watch and support the streamer (Wingfield, 2015). The strange thing about these types of crimes is that they seemingly provide no tangible benefit to the criminal. So why are these crimes being committed? There are several theories related to motivation and group mentalities that can provide an explanation for this …show more content…
Intrinsic motivation is the basis of why swatting occurs because there are hardly any external motivators. To swatters, successfully swatting someone is fun, rewarding and challenging. However, this internal motivation that can be seen in swatters can be described as sadistic, psychopathic, narcissistic, and Machiavellian (manipulation and deceitfulness). Swatters can be easily defined as “trolls” on an extreme end of the spectrum. Researchers define trolling as “the practice of behaving in a deceptive, destructive, or disruptive manner in a social setting on the Internet for no purpose other than their pleasure” (Gander, 2014). A recent “comprehensive examination of their (trolls) psychological profiles” has shown that trolling behavior has a “similar [pattern] of relations” with the “Dark Tetrad of personality” (Buckels, Trapnell, Paulhus, 2014). This “Dark Tetrad” consists of Machiavellian characteristics, psychopathy, narcissism, and sadism (Mooney, 2014). If trolls can be associated and defined with these characteristics, then swatters may be intrinsically motivated by these characteristics as well. Need for power and need for affiliation can also explain swatting (Status-enhancing). Swatters can definitely be categorized as sensation seekers. Swatting is definitely a unique experience in that they look to negatively impact people in some way after some elaborate (but not impossibly difficult) work. Swatters generally have
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