[ by Melanie Gretchen ] Dharun Ravi, the convicted Rutgers college student who filmed his gay roommate, Tyler Clementi, with a male date, that led Tyler to take his own life, shined a new spotlight on cyber-crime.  For having used a webcam to capture the scene in the boys' dorm room, inviting friends to come and watch, and planning to show the film over Twitter, Mr. Ravi was convicted of several crimes, including bias intimidation, evidence tampering, and invasion of privacy.  He now faces up to 10 years in prison. This sets the stage for a new civil rights law precedent amid crackdown on bullying via computer technology and the Internet. State Precedent. New Jersey was one of the country's first hate crime statutes in 1981, when it outlawed the burning of crosses or placing of swastikas to terrorize and threaten violence.  In 1990, the legislature added extra prison time for racial, ethnic, or religious prejudice.  "From now on hate crimes will be serious crimes," Governor Jim Florio said upon signing the bill, citing “a phone call in the middle of the night or vandalism that leaves hateful symbols in its wake or racial slurs." Violence Trend. In New Jersey, cases with bias intimidation charges typically have included an underlying offense of significant violence.  Guilty convictions under civil rights law usually include people throwing punches while yelling a racial epithet, or beating a man with a metal rod while cursing him for being from India, or for threatening to shoot a driver, while employing a racial slur and then tailgating him for miles.  These are cases in which prejudice twists into ugly and serious harm, as in the case of Mr. Clementi. Teen Crime. Bias intimidation precedent has extended to teenagers.  One boy was convicted for being the ringleader of a bunch of children who ganged up on a girl, calling her a lesbian.  In another case, a teenager got in trouble for shoving a boy, using a racial slur and threatening to hang him from a tree. However, punishment has been limited, as both were regarded as juveniles.  Case in point: The boy who did the shoving was ordered to spend 10 days in juvenile detention and read the book "Black Like Me." One for the Books. What sets Ravi's case apart was that, although was a teenager when he spied on Mr. Clementi, legally he was an adult.  Critics of his punishment have labeled his actions as "immature homophobia," trading on Mr. Clementi’s homosexuality to get attention for attention.  In addition, the prosecutors have been criticized as trying "to ramp up" civil rights laws, specifically due to the fact that this normally increases the pressure on a defendant to plead guilty. Possible Outcome. To date, Ravi was offered a deal of community service in exchange for admitting to invading Mr. Clementi’s privacy.  (He didn't take it.)  The spying he did was criminal, but his lawyer has portrayed his actions as "stupid kid" behavior. Nevertheless, he faces the state of New Jersey's broad civil rights laws and the emerging potential of technology and the Internet to perpetrate crime.  It doesn't look like this trend is going away anytime soon. It also looks like the legalities of cyber-space will remain a work-in-progress for the foreseeable future. For further details, go to [NYTimes, 3/20/12].