Stalking
Eight percent of women and two percent of men in the United States
have been stalked in their lifetime. Seventy-eight percent of stalking
victims are female and 87 percent of stalking perpetrators are
male. The average duration of stalking behavior lasts 1.8 years. (National
Institute of Justice. 1998. Stalking in America: Findings From
the National Violence Against Women Survey. Washington, DC:
U.S. Department of Justice.)
Only about 12 percent of all stalking cases are prosecuted. (Ibid.)
Current or former intimate partners stalk approximately 503,485
women and 185,496 men in the United States annually. (National
Institute of Justice. 2000. Extent, Nature and Consequences of
Intimate Partner Violence. Washington, DC: U.S. Department
of Justice.)
Strangers are the perpetrators in 23 percent of female stalking
incidents. Current or former husbands are the perpetrators 38 percent
of the time; current or former cohabiting partners are the perpetrators
10 percent of the time; and current or former boyfriends are the
perpetrators 14 percent of the time. (National
Institute of Justice. Violence Against Women Office. 2001. "Stalking
and Domestic Violence." The Third Report to Congress under
the Violence Against Women Act. Washington, DC: U.S. Department
of Justice.)
In the National Violence Against Women Survey (NVAW),
81 percent of women stalked by current or former intimate partners
were also physically assaulted by the same partners, and 31% were
also sexually assaulted. (Ibid.)
Intimate partners that stalk are four times more likely than intimate
partners in the general population to physically assault their
victims and six times more likely to sexually assault their victims. (Ibid)
The Los Angeles Stalking and Threat Assessment Unit recently reported
that threatening email and other electronic communications are
factors in 20 percent of the stalking cases referred to their office. (Ibid)
Seventy-five percent of intimate partner femicides reviewed in
a recent study were preceded by one or more incidents of stalking
within a year of the crime. (McFarlane, J.,
Campbell, J., Wilts, S., et. al. 1999. "Stalking and intimate
partner femicide." Homicide Studies. 3[4].)
A recent survey of college women indicates that the incidence
rate of stalking on campuses is far higher than previous surveys
indicate. Stalking behavior, defined as obsessive behavior that
causes the victim to fear for her safety, occurred at rates as
high as 156.5 per 1000 female students or 13.1 percent of female
students on college campuses. (National Institute
of Justice. 2000. The Sexual Victimization of College Women.
Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.)
Female stalking victims on college campuses reported that they
were stalked two to six times a week. The duration of the stalking
was an average of 60 days. (Ibid.)
The most common consequence of the stalking of college women was
psychological harm and emotional injury. Fifteen percent of the
time, the stalker threatened or attempted to harm the victim and
10 percent of the time, the stalker forced or attempted sexual
contact. (Ibid.)
Three of the correlating factors that increase the risk of a female
being stalked on a college campus are spending time in bars; living
alone; and being in the early phase of a dating relationship, as
opposed to being married or living with an intimate partner. (Ibid.)
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| National Crime Victims' Rights
Week: Fulfill the Promise |
April 6–12, 2003 |
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