What is Stalking?

During the past three weeks, I gave you all just a brief look into what stalking is and how dangerous it could potentially be by telling you a story that happened to me. Even though my stalking has diminished tremendously, I am still keeping a watchful eye on the situation because the matter was not brought to the attention of the police, and my stalker has every intention of doing me harm; even though we are many miles away from each other. Stalkers have been known to stalk their victim for a while, then stop doing it for a few years, and then start the stalking all over again (although the percentage of these cases is extremely low). This week’s blog entry begins to explore this silent crime called stalking. This week, I will inform you what stalking is, give you a general sense as to the profile of a stalker and victim, the two main types of stalkers, and how stalking can escalate into a dangerous situation.
The first thing that anybody should know is what stalking means. The legal definition of stalking is generally “the willful, malicious, and repeated following and harassing of another person… (Swanson, 2003, p. 325).” In other words, the stalker must have the intention of following a victim. Whether this intent is based on revenge for the victim leaving a relationship, or whether the intent is based on a delusional fantasy, intent must be present for the crime to be called stalking. Second, the stalker must have malice toward the victim, or have the intent to see a person suffer. Finally, the victim has to be harassed and followed by said individual. Once all these ingredients are present, the crime is called stalking.
In layman’s terms, stalking “involves repeated physical or visual proximity, nonconsensual communication, or verbal, written, or implied threats sufficient to cause fear in a reasonable person” (Siegel, 2002, p. 241). In other words, stalking behaviors include following a person, appearing at a victim’s home or place of employment, making harassing phone calls to the victim, writing letters or leaving unwanted presents, vandalizing the victim’s property, and making credible threats toward the victim (Swanson, 2003). Even though these actions may seem like a simple nuisance to most people, and some might even shrug these incidents off, I cannot emphasize this enough that these actions are to be taken very seriously. As you will see later on in this article, stalkers go through a series of steps which sometimes progress to homicide. How are people, therefore, able to classify a person as a stalker?
I gave a presentation about domestic violence and stalking in one of my classes in college. My opening words stated that a person sitting in a crowded room could have the HIV virus and nobody would even know it. Why? Because just by looking at a person, nobody can determine if that person has HIV or not. To place this example in the context of stalking, a stalker could be sitting in a crowded room and nobody would even know that that person was a stalker. Just as the person with the HIV virus, just by looking at a person, nobody can determine if that person is a stalker or not.
Doris Hall researched and analyzed 145 stalkers from across the United States. She found that 67% of stalkers were white, followed by 10% African American. Most stalkers (24%) were between the ages of 41 and 50, and most of them (17%) worked in professional occupations. Most interesting was the fact that 52% of stalkers were found to abuse drugs or alcohol, 30% had a mental illness, and 49% had a history of violence or physical abuse (Meloy, 1998). What makes classifying a stalker so difficult is that an individual may possess all of these characteristics and still not stalk people. There are some factors that come into play which combine with Hall’s statistics to make people stalkers; factors that will be discussed in a few weeks.
In combination of these statistics, there are two groups of stalkers; love-obsession stalkers, and simple obsession stalkers (Swanson, 2003).
Love-obsession stalkers comprise about 20% to 25% of stalking cases (Swanson, 2003). The stalker develops an obsession with another person that is either an acquaintance or a stranger. These stalkers typically suffer from mental disorders such as schizophrenia or paranoia. More likely, these stalkers have delusional fantasies involving their victims (Swanson, 2003). An example of such a delusional person would be a victim smiling at the stalker or simply saying hello. The stalker would fantasize about that situation and believe the victim wants to be their friend or lover even though the victim just was being friendly.
Simple obsession stalkers are the most common type of stalking, comprising 70% to 80% of stalking cases (Swanson, 2003). The victims have been in some form of intimate relationship with the stalker, either a boyfriend or girlfriend, or an ex-husband or ex-wife (Swanson, 2003). Some of these stalkers might have psychological disorders, but most of these simple obsession stalkers have personality disorders (Swanson, 2003). Simple obsession stalkers more often than not are those who are socially maladjusted, have immature emotions, feelings of powerlessness, the sense that they cannot succeed in relationships by socially acceptable means, are extremely jealous and paranoid, and have feelings of insecurity and low self-esteem (Swanson, 2003).
Doris Hall’s research also focused on 145 stalking victims. She derived the following characteristics of stalking victims. Eighty-four percent of the victims were white, 34% were never married, 24% were between the ages of 18 and 25, and 31% were employed in a professional workplace (Meloy, 1998).
Nobody deserves to be stalked. If you have ever been stalked (which I hope you haven’t), the crime changes your life. After I was stalked, I noticed that I never walked in a parking lot without having my car keys in my hand. I always carried my cell phone with me just in case anything did happen. I also found myself trusting people less, and even found it hard to be myself while dating other women. Although the after effects of me being stalked is minor, at its extreme case, victims tend to abuse alcohol, drugs, or even commit suicide because they cannot cope with the emotional and mental scars caused by the stalking (Davis, 2002). Just like I became after my stalking, people become less trusting of others, victims blame themselves for being stalked, and above all they suffer extreme psychological and emotional abuse from being stalked (Davis, 2002).
But how does stalking produce extreme trauma which may last for a lifetime in victims? Stalkers tend to have four stages in which they use toward their victim. According to FBI profiler John Douglas in his novel Obsession, first, the stalker tries to win the victim over by giving them gifts, love letters, flowers, etc. If the victim ignores these gifts, the stalker would increase their effort to make the victim notice him or her. The stalker then pries into the victim’s life by acting very possessive and becoming very jealous of the victim having other relationships (Douglas, 1998). Keep in mind that stalkers want complete control in a relationship, and if the stalker thinks their victim is not paying attention to him or her, the stalker would become jealous. Once this happens, the stalker may harass or threaten the victim (Douglas, 1998). The victim may or may not take this threat seriously, but if they ignore the threat, sometimes, out of anger, the stalker may become homicidal toward the victim or threaten to commit suicide (Douglas, 1998).
As I mentioned earlier, stalking is a very serious situation and should be taken very seriously. If you are being stalked, I recommend (besides calling the police, of course) keeping a detailed log of each and every stalking incident. This will be discussed in depth within the next few weeks.
To sum up what was discussed, this article focused on the legal and clinical definitions of stalking. I also described what some of the stalking behaviors are so you could notice the warning signs and recognize if you are being stalked or not. I also compared the profiles of stalkers (while describing the two main types of stalkers) and victims. Victims also experience extreme trauma after being stalked; the reason was because of the cycle that stalkers use to control their victims.
The next few articles are going to dive deeper into describing what this heinous crime is all about. Here is the schedule (which could change without notice) for the weeks to come:
September 11, 2006: What are the different categories of stalkers?
September 18, 2006: What is the link between domestic violence and stalking?
September 25, 2006: What to do if you are being stalked?
IF THE SCHEDULING CHANGES, I WILL POST A REVISED SCHEDULE ON THE MONDAY THE BLOG WOULD HAVE BEEN POSTED.


REFERENCE LIST:
Swanson, Charles R., Chamelin, Neil C., Territo, Leonard. (2003). Criminal Investigation. McGraw Hill: New York City, New York.

Siegel, Larry J. (2002). Criminology: The Core. Wadsworth Publishing: Belmont, California.

Meloy, J. Reid. (1998). The Psychology of Stalking: Clinical and Forensic Perspectives. Academic Press: San Diego, California.

Davis, Keith E., Frieze, Irene Hanson, Maiuro, Roland D. (2002). Stalking: Perspectives on Victims and Perpetrators. Springer Publishing Company, Inc.: New York City, New York.

Douglas, John. (1998). The FBI's Legendary Profiler Probes the Psyches of Killers, Rapists and Stalkers and Their Victims and Tells How to Fight Back. Pocket Books: New York City, New York.


These stories that are told on this blog are true. The names have been changed to protect the true identities of those individuals involved. If you would like to respond to this blog entry, please click on the envelope next to comments underneath this article. On the screen that appears, enter your name and your email address. Under "friend's email address" enter Senorgetman@yahoo.com. I will only accept emails under this fashion. DISCLAIMOR: THIS WEBSITE BY NO MEANS OFFERS LEGAL ADVICE TO VICTIMS OF STALKING AND DOMESTIC ABUSE. IF YOU ARE CURRENTLY A VICTIM OF STALKING AND/OR DOMESTIC ABUSE, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY IMMEDIATLEY.