Obscene or nuisance telephone calls are particularly targeted against women. This study used data from two British Crime Surveys (1982 and 1992) in an attempt to measure the effects of individual socioeconomic characteristics and victimization histories on women’s likelihood of receiving at least one nuisance call. To make the logit modeling analysis more tangible, the study calculated risks of nuisance calls from models of four hypothetical women--single mother, professional student, housewife and pensioner--with specific attributes taken from the set of explanatory variables. Female population groups vulnerable to threats were also vulnerable to receiving nuisance calls. These were young, single or divorced women, with children, living on their own, in inner cities, with higher than basic educational attainment. The study supports the psychological assumption that the perpetrator knows or at least has seen his victim and therefore satisfies a fixation he has about her. Being in the phone book does not make women any more or less likely to receive nuisance calls, suggesting victims should first suspect somebody from their circle of acquaintances. Notes, tables, references