Stalking

By: Angels In Blue

     Stalking generally refers to harassing or threatening behavior that an individual engages in repeatedly, such as following a person, appearing at a person's home or place of business, making harassing phone calls, leaving written messages or objects, or vandalizing a person's property. These actions may or may not be accompanied by a credible threat of serious harm, and they may or may not be precursors to an assault or murder.  

     Legal definitions of stalking vary widely from state to state. Though most states define stalking as the willful, malicious, and repeated following and harassing of another person, some states include in their definition such activities as lying-in-wait, surveillance, nonconsensual communication, telephone harassment, and vandalism. While most states require that the alleged stalker engage in a course of conduct showing that the crime was not an isolated event, some states specify how many acts (usually two or more) must occur before the conduct can be considered stalking. State stalking laws also vary in their threat and fear requirements. Most stalking laws require that the perpetrator, to qualify as a stalker, make a credible threat of violence against the victim; others include in their requirements threats against the victim's immediate family; and still others require only that the alleged stalker's course of conduct constitute an implied threat.

     The definition of stalking used in the model antistalking code for states developed by the National Institute of Justice.The survey defines stalking as "a course of conduct directed at a specific person that involves repeated visual or physical proximity, nonconsensual communication, or verbal, written or implied threats, or a combination thereof, that would cause a reasonable person fear," with repeated meaning on two or more occasions. The model antistalking code does not require stalkers to make a credible threat of violence against victims, but it does require victims to feel a high level of fear ("fear of bodily harm").

Facts

     Stalking first received widespread public concern in 1980 with the murder of John Lennon, and again in 1981, with John Hinkley Jr.'s assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. It was not until the 1989 death of Rebecca Schaeffer, a rising young actress, who was killed by an obsessed fan who had stalked her for 2 years, that laws were initiated. As a result, California enacted the first state anti-stalking legislation in 1990. Since then, 48 other states and the District of Columbia have enacted anti-stalking laws.

     The following data were first released by NIJ in November of 1997 in a Bulletin entitled The Crime of Stalking: How Big is the Problem? A more comprehensive overview of the research findings were released in a April 1998 Research in Brief report entitled Stalking in America, modeled after the landmark 1992 Rape in America report developed by the Medical University of South Carolina and the National Victim Center.

     Stalking affects about 1.4 million victims annually.

     Of those surveyed, eight percent of women and two percent of men said they had been stalked at some point in their lives. Projected against 1995 estimates of the adult population, these percentages would result in 8.2 million female and two million male lifetime stalking victims, most of whom were stalked by only one stalker.

     While stalking is a gender neutral crime, 78 percent of the stalking victims identified by the survey were women, and 22 percent were men.

     Researchers estimated that approximately one million women and 400,000 men are stalked each year in the United States.

     About half of all female stalking victims reported their victimization to police and about 25 percent obtained a restraining order. Eighty percent of all restraining orders were violated by the assailant. About 24 percent of female victims who reported stalking to the police, as compared to 19 percent of male victims, said their cases were prosecuted. Of the cases in which criminal charges were filed, 54 percent resulted in a conviction. About 63 percent of convictions resulted in jail time.

     Most victims knew their stalker. Women were significantly more likely to be stalked by an intimate partner -- a current or former spouse, a co-habitating partner, or a date. About 60 percent of stalking by intimate partners started before a relationship ended. Only 23 percent of stalkers identified by female victims were strangers. However, men were more likely to be stalked by a stranger or an acquaintance -- 36 percent of male stalking victims were stalked by strangers.

     Young adults are also the primary targets of stalkers. For example, 52 percent of the stalking victims were 18-29 years old and 22 percent were 30-39 years old when the stalking started. On average, victims were 28 years old when the stalking started.

     About 87 percent of stalkers were men. Women tended to be victimized by lone stalkers, but in 50 percent of male victimizations, the stalker had an accomplice -- usually a friend or girlfriend. Most victims were between the ages of 18 and 29 when the stalking began.

     Stalkers made overt threats to about 45 percent of victims; spied on or followed about 75 percent of victims; vandalized the property of about 30 percent of victims; and threatened to kill or killed the pet(s) of about 10 percent of victims.

     In most cases, stalking episodes lasted one year or less, but in a few cases, stalking continued for 5 or more years. When asked why the stalking stopped, about 20 percent of the victims said it was because they moved away. Another 15 percent said it was because of police involvement. Also, stalking of women victims often stopped when the assailant began a relationship with a new girlfriend or wife.

     Results from the survey also indicate that female victims were significantly more likely than male victims (28 percent and 10 percent) to obtain a protective or restraining order against their stalker. Of those who obtained restraining orders, 69 percent of the women and 81 percent of the men said their stalker violated the order.

     Overall, 13 percent of female victims and nine percent of male victims reported that their stalkers were criminally prosecuted. These figures increase to 24 percent and 19 percent, respectively, when only those cases with police reports are considered.

     About one-third of stalking victims reported they had sought psychological treatment. In addition, one-fifth lost time from work, and seven percent of those never returned to work.

Recommendations to address the crime of stalking included in the Report are the following:

     Stalking should be treated as a significant social problem.

     Credible threat requirements should be eliminated from anti-stalking statutes.

     Research on stalking should move beyond "celebrity stalking" and focus on acquaintance and intimate partner stalking.

     The nation's criminal justice community should receive comprehensive training on the particular safety needs of stalking victims.

     More research must be conducted on the effectiveness of formal and informal law enforcement interventions.

     More research must be conducted on the effectiveness of formal and informal law enforcement interventions.

     The mental health community should receive comprehensive training about the appropriate treatment of stalking victims.

     Stalking intervention strategies should include/address victim confidentiality issues.

TYPES OF STALKING

     Stalking is composed of three defining elements: the stalker's relationship with the victim, the stalker's motive in pursuing the victim, and the stalker's behavior. The stalker's relationship with their victim provides a useful basis for defining and classifying the various types of stalking. Forensic psychologists have identified three types of stalking: erotomania, love obsessional, and simple obsessional.

Erotomania

The erotomanic stalker, usually female, has the delusional belief that they are passionately loved by another. They go to great lengths to contact the person of their delusion, usually a person of higher socio-economic class and status, or an unattainable public figure. These stalkers are often described as celebrity stalkers or obsessed fans.

Love Obsessional

This stalker is a stranger to the victim. They develop a love obsession or fixation on another person with whom they have no personal relationship. The stalker mounts a campaign of harassment to make the victim aware of their existence. The love obsessional stalker not only attempts to live out their fantasies, but expects their victims to play their assigned roles. They believe they can make their object of affection love them back.

Simple Obsessional

Virtually all domestic violence cases involving stalking fall under this category. The victim can be an ex-spouse, ex-lover, former boss, or co-worker. In each of these cases, obsessional activities begin after the relationship has gone sour or the stalker perceives mistreatment by the victim. The stalker campaigns to rectify the relationship or seeks some type of retribution.

Internet Stalking and 'Revenge' Sites

Contributed by

Marguerite L. Malain-Lewallen

Forensic Psychology

ACJA-LAE, Sigma-Chi Chapter

California State University, Sacramento

     In recent years, stalkers have found a new medium through which to commit crimes against their victims- the internet. The reason for this is that the perceived anonymity of the World Wide Web makes it a safe vessel through which stalkers can terrorize, harass and threaten the very victims which have obtained offline restraining orders against them, or even individuals whom they have never met before offline.

     The topic of 'revenge sites' has even many First Amendment activists divided. These sites have sprung up all over the World Wide Web urging people to submit the names, social security numbers, ages and names of children, etc. of the perceived 'offending party', generally an ex-spouse or lover, but to include ex-roommates, friends and family members. Many of these sites even charge membership fees! These sites, often illegally, harass and endanger the lives of many innocent victims and are often perpetrated by vengeful and obsessively dangerous persons. One site in particular, frequented by my stalker, had a submission sent at one point that suggested breaking a light bulb into the victim's puppy's food and gleefully watching the victim's grief as the puppy died slowly of internal bleeding! This person later went on to submit the name and address of an ex-spouse under a different handle.

     However, due to my case with my stalker (whose stalking first began offline and then progressed online in an attempt to avoid legal repercussions) as well as a case in Los Angeles County , on January 1, 1999, California stalking legislation included the use of the internet and other electronic means into the penal code.

     However, many victims of cyber-stalking crimes do not know the identity of their stalkers which makes prosecuting such crimes extremely frustrating. A non-profit organization has sprung up by the name of Cyber Angels. Through this non-profit organization, one may report incidences of cyber harassment, terrorization and stalking.

     If you are concerned with online privacy, below are links to some sites specifically created with the growing concern for privacy online in mind:

Stalking Behavior Patterns and Cycles:

Stalking behavior patterns closely mirror those common in many domestic violence cases. The pattern is usually triggered when the stalker's advances toward their victim is frustrated - regardless of whether the stalker is seeking to establish a personal relationship or continue a previously established relationship contrary to the wishes of the victim.

    The stalker may attempt to woo their victim into a relationship by sending flowers, candy and love letters, in an attempt to "prove their love." However, when the victim spurns their unwelcome advances, the stalker often turns to intimidation. Such attempts at intimidation often begin in the form of an unjustified, jealous and inappropriate intrusion into the victim's life. Often these contacts become more numerous and intrusive over time, until such collective conduct becomes a persistent pattern of harassment. Many times, harassing behavior escalates to threatening behavior. Such threats may be direct or indirect and communicated explicitly or implicitly by the stalker's conduct. Unfortunately, cases that reach this level of seriousness too often end in violence and/or murder.

    Stalkers, unable to establish or re-establish a relationship of power and control over their victims, turn to violence as a means of reasserting their domination over the victim. In some cases, offenders are even willing to kill their victims and themselves in a last, desperate attempt to assert their domination over the victim.

     The evolution of the stalker's thought pattern progresses from: "If I can just prove to you how much I love you," to "I can make you love me," to "If I can't have you, nobody else will."

     While this progression in behavior is common, no stalking case is completely predictable. Some stalkers may never escalate past the first stage. Others jump from the first stage to the last stage with little warning. Still others regress to previous stages before advancing to the next. It is not uncommon to see stalkers intersperse episodes of threats and violence with flowers and love letters.

     As difficult as it is to predict what a stalker might do, it is at least as difficult to predict when he might do it. A few stalkers will progress to later stages in only a few weeks or even days. In other cases, stalkers who have engaged in some of the most serious stalking behaviors may go months or even years without attempting a subsequent contact.

Guidelines for Prosecuting

1. It's up to you to provide evidence to establish probable cause..

2. Pick up a copy of your state's stalking statute in order to gain a clear understanding of what conduct constitutes an offense under the statute.  

3. You have to first prove your case to a law enforcement officials before being allowed to prove your case before a court of law. So it's so important that you, the victim, document every stalking incident as thoroughly as possible, including collecting and keeping any videotapes, audio tapes, phone answering machine messages, photos of the stalker or property damage, letters sent, objects left, affidavits from eye witnesses, notes, etc. It's recommended that you also keep a journal to document all incidents, along with the time, date and other relevant information.

4. The sooner you file your case the better. If law enforcement officials refuse to investigate, or if they are not responsive to a complaint filed, go straight to your local prosecutor (also known in various jurisdictions as, the district attorney, state's attorney, commonwealth's attorney or state solicitor).

5. Any person who suspects or believes that they are currently being stalked should immediately seek the advice and assistance of a local domestic violence or rape crisis programs to develop a plan of action. (They should be listed under Community Services Numbers or Emergency Assistance Numbers in the front section of the local phone book) or in victim assistance programs located in most local prosecutors' offices and in some law enforcement agencies (which should be listed under Local, City or County Government in the blue pages of the local phone book).

The Interstate Anti-Stalking Punishment and Prevention Act of 1996

The Interstate Anti-Stalking Punishment and Prevention Act was enacted by Congress in September of 1996. The law was incorporated as an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill, H.R. 3610. The new law was designed to improve the anti-stalking provisions passed as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (Crime Bill) and to create a uniform federal law to protect stalking victims when they travel across a state line and/or on federal property, including military bases and Indian reservations. The Act makes it a felony to cross a state line to stalk someone in violation of a restraining order.

     According to the National Victim Center, as stated in its national publication the Victim Policy Pipeline:

•Under Section 2261 of the Crime Bill, anyone who crosses state lines with the intent to injure, harass or intimidate that person's spouse or intimate partner, or who, in the course of such travel, intentionally commits a crime of violence and causes bodily injury to the spouse or intimate partner, is in violation of federal law. (National Victim Center. (1996, Spring). Public Policy Pipeline, Vol. Two, No. 1, p. 2. Arlington, VA: Author.)

•Additionally, Section 2262(B) makes it a federal crime for any person to cause his or her spouse or intimate partner to cross a state line by force or coercion, and in the course of or as a result of that, commits an act that injures the spouse or intimate partner in violation of a protective order. (Ibid.)

•Importantly, the new federal anti-stalking law amends these above sections of the Crime Bill in order to expand the measure to include victims stalked by persons other than their spouse or intimate partner. (Ibid.)

•In addition, the anti-stalking law creates a new federal crime of "interstate stalking." According to the National Victim Center, anyone traveling across state lines, or entering or leaving Indian territory with the intent to injure or harass another person, and in the course of such travel, places that person in reasonable fear of death or serious bodily injury to that person or a member of his or her immediate family, would be in violation of federal law. The same criteria apply on all federal property, including military installations. (Ibid.)