Crime
Every society has crime - individuals who break the rules. In the Virtual Nation, the participants create the rules, making crime more difficult to define. Few studies have been done in this area - most of the studies have been confined to the affect of the Internet on "local" law (Janower, 1996 and Bilstad and Godward, 1996). Virtual crimes, such as the virtual rape committed by "Mr. Bungle" on LambdaMOO (Dibbell, 1998), are still very real to the victims, as evidenced by the punishment - erasure of the character, a virtual death penalty.
While the Internet provides a new outlet for criminal activity, some conjecture that the advances in technology may create further social inequities that will then create a new basis for crime. Kilger (1996) conjectures that we may face a new caste of virtual homeless, as more and more information is moved into electronic format. These individuals would not have access to technology and would hence be bereft of digital identities - nonexistent in the Virtual Nation.