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Stalking


Stalking is a crime of power and control. It is usually defined as a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear.1Stalking behaviors also may include repeated actions, such as leaving or sending the victim unwanted items or presents,  following or laying in wait for the victim, defaming the victim’s character, damaging or threatening to damage the victim's property,  or harassing the victim via the Internet by posting personal information or spreading rumors about the victim. Stalkers often use various forms of technology, such as Global Positioning Systems and cell phones, to track and harass their victims.

For more information about stalking, visit the Stalking Resource Center.

Recent Statistics on Stalking:

  • During a one-year period, 3.4 million people ages 18 or older in the United States were stalked.2

  • Women were more likely to be victimized by male (67 percent) than female (24 percent) stalkers, while men were equally likely to be victimized by male (41 percent) or female (43 percent) stalkers.3

  • The most common stalking behavior reported by victims was unwanted phone calls or messages (66.2 percent), followed by spreading rumors (35.7 percent), following or spying on the victim (34.3 percent), and showing up at the same places as the victim without having a reason to be there (31.1 percent).4

  • More than 1 in 4 stalking victims reported having been stalked through some form of technology, such as e-mail, instant messaging, or electronic monitoring.5

  • Persons ages 18 to 24 experience the highest rate of stalking.6

  • Only 9.7 percent of stalkers were strangers to their victims.7

  • Stalking victims took a variety of protective actions, including changing their day-to-day activities (21.6 percent), staying with family (18.1 percent), installing call blocking or caller ID (18.1 percent), changing their phone number (17.3 percent), and changing their e-mail address (6.9 percent).8

  • Thirty-seven percent of male and 41 percent of female stalking victimizations were reported to the police by the victim or someone else aware of the crime.9

    15.6 percent of stalking victims obtained a restraining, protection, or stay away order.10

  • Forty-six percent of stalking victims experienced at least one unwanted contact per week.11

  • Seventy-eight percent of stalkers used more than one means of contacting the victim.12

  • Weapons were used to harm or threaten stalking victims in about 1 in 5 cases.13

  • Nearly one-third of stalkers were found to be repeat stalkers.14

  • Intimate partner stalkers used more insults, interfering, threats, violence, and weapons, than other types of stalkers.15

  • 76 percent of intimate partner femicide (homicide of women) victims were stalked by their intimate partner in the year prior to the femicide.16

  • An analysis of 13 published studies of 1,155 stalking cases found that 38.7% of the victims experienced violence connected to the stalking.17

  • The same analysis found that a history of substance abuse corresponded to increased rates of violence among stalking offenders.18

  • A survey of university undergraduates revealed that 20 percent had been stalked or harassed; 8 percent had initiated stalking or harassment; and 1 percent had been both a target and an initiator.19

  • When asked to name their worst fear related to the stalking, 46 percent of stalking victims reported not knowing what would happen next, and 29 percent reported fearing the stalking would never stop.20

  • One in 8 employed stalking victims loses time from work as a result of the victimization, and of those victims, more than half lose 5 days of work or more.21

  • One in 7 stalking victims moves as a result of the victimization.22

References

  1. Stalking Resource Center, "Stalking Fact Sheet," (Washington, DC: National Center for Victims of Crime, 2009).
  2. Katrina Baum, Shannan Catalano, Michael Rand, and Kristina Rose, "Stalking Victimization in the United States" (Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2009), 1, http://www.ovw.usdoj.gov/docs/stalking-victimization.pdf (accessed September 29, 2011).
  3. Ibid., 4.
  4. Ibid., 2, Table 2.
  5. Ibid., 5, Table 7.
  6. Ibid., 3, Table 3.
  7. Ibid., 4, Table 5.
  8. Ibid., 6, Table 8.
  9. Ibid., 8.
  10. Ibid., 6, Table 9.
  11. Ibid, 1.
  12. Kris Mohandie et al., "The RECON Typology of Stalking: Reliability and Validity Based upon a Large Sample of North American Stalkers," Journal of Forensic Sciences 51 (2006), 150.
  13. Ibid.
  14. Ibid., 152.
  15. Ibid., 153.
  16. Judith McFarlane et al., "Stalking and Intimate Partner Femicide," Homicide Studies 3, no. 4 (1999).
  17. Barry Rosenfeld, "Violence Risk Factors in Stalking and Obsessional Harassment," Criminal Justice and Behavior 31 (2004): 9.
  18. Ibid., 32.
  19. Jeffrey J. Haugaard and Lisa G. Seri, "Stalking and Other Forms of Intrusive Contact after the Dissolution of Adolescent Dating or Romantic Relationships," Violence and Victims 18 (2004): 3.
  20. Katrina Baum et al., 6-7.
  21. Ibid., 7.
  22. Ibid., 6.