Stalking Victimization in the United States: An Overview

Introduction: The Origins of Anti-Stalking Law

It was not until Rebecca Schaeffer was killed by Robert John Bardo in 1989 that the word "stalking" began to take on a new meaning in popular culture — one associated with the pursuit of celebrities by obsessive fans, criminal harassment, and even serial killers (Nicol, 2006, pp. 18–20). A year later, California responded by passing the first anti-stalking statute, and within another year the other 49 states had followed suit. In 1996, interstate stalking became a federal felony.

The rapid response of federal and state legislatures to the perceived threat of stalking was fueled in part by the growing realization that celebrity stalking represented only a small percentage of all stalking victims. The first states to pass anti-stalking legislation witnessed their court dockets begin to fill with stalking cases, leading some to conclude that the magnitude of the problem had been underestimated. Nicol (2006, p. 22) proposed that the rapid legislative response represented a social "moral panic" concerning the threat of stalking — one that may have been an overreaction to a real but incompletely understood phenomenon.

Stalking Prevalence

Putting stalking into perspective relative to other violent crimes is not easy, because the Federal Bureau of Investigation does not collect data specifically on stalking. The only official source of information regarding the prevalence of this crime has been collected by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, which examined the annual incidence rate during 2006 (Baum, Catalano, Rand, and Rose, 2009). Given that this data was not available until early 2010, the rapid passage of anti-stalking laws almost two decades earlier was probably more a reflexive reaction than an informed legislative process.

Based on crimes reported to police departments and law enforcement agencies nationwide, 1 out of every 200 Americans was the victim of a violent crime during 2006 (U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2007). This includes 1 out of 16,400 murdered or the victim of negligent homicide, 1 out of 3,200 forcibly raped, 1 out of 623 robbed, and 1 out of 334 assaulted. By comparison, the National Crime Victimization Survey revealed that 1 out of 72 Americans would be predicted to have experienced stalking during 2006 (Baum, Catalano, Rand, and Rose, 2009, pp. 2–3).

Although the National Crime Victimization Survey on annual stalking incidence suggests this crime is three times more common than all violent crimes combined, only 41% of women and 37% of men responding to the survey ever complained to the police (Baum, Catalano, Rand, and Rose, 2009, p. 9). If the FBI had received data representing all of these complaints in the form of police reports, the annual incidence of stalking would be 1 out of 180 Americans. However, only 55.5% of complaints to the police ever resulted in a police report (Baum, Catalano, Rand, and Rose, 2009, p. 14). This underreporting would have lowered the official incidence rate to 1 out of 324 Americans — equivalent to the number of aggravated assaults committed in 2006. This analysis suggests that stalking incidents serious enough to trigger a police report represent the most prevalent violent crime committed in this country.

Defining Stalking

The Bureau of Justice Statistics defines stalking as behavior by another person that would lead the average person to experience fear (Baum, Catalano, Rand, and Rose, 2009, p. 1). Forensic psychologists who study this type of behavior define stalking as "a constellation of behaviors in which one individual inflicts on another repeated unwanted intrusions and communications" (Nicol, 2006, p. 15).

The definition of stalking as outlined in the various state and federal statutes can vary substantially, but the behaviors that generally qualify as stalking — whether occurring repetitively or in various combinations — include unsolicited and unwelcome phone calls and messages (66.2%), letters and emails (30.6%), and gifts (12.2%); engaging in surveillance of the victim (34.3%); frequent unexplained encounters (30%); and spreading factual or slanderous information about the victim online or in the community (35.7%; Baum, Catalano, Rand, and Rose, 2009, p. 2).

For the purposes of the National Crime Victimization Survey, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (Baum, Catalano, Rand, and Rose, 2009, p. 1) included only those victims who experienced fear; otherwise the criminal behavior was classified as harassment. The fear experienced can be for one's own safety or that of a loved one, making the induction of fear a defining trait of stalking. The nature of that fear can vary: uncertainty about the future (46%), concern about the safety of someone in one's social network (40%) or a loved one (16.7%), fear of bodily harm (20%), and fear of loss of life (10%; Baum, Catalano, Rand, and Rose, 2009, p. 7).

Unfortunately, the fears victims experience are often justified. Approximately 43.2% of victims reported being threatened, 21% were physically attacked, 24.4% had their property damaged, and 15% experienced an attack on someone close to them or on a pet (Baum, Catalano, Rand, and Rose, 2009, p. 8).

References

Baum, Katrina, Catalano, Shannan, Rand, Michael, and Rose, Kristina. (2009). Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report: Stalking victimization in the United States. Retrieved August 8, 2011, from

Boles, Gregory S. (2001). Developing a model approach to confronting the problem of stalking: Establishing a threat management unit. In J. A. Davis (Ed.), Stalking crimes and victim protection: Prevention, intervention, threat assessment, and case management (pp. 338–349). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Collins, Melissa J., and Wilkas, Mary Beth. (2001). Stalking trauma and the traumatized victim. In J. A. Davis (Ed.), Stalking crimes and victim protection: Prevention, intervention, threat assessment, and case management (pp. 317–332). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Logan, T. K., Cole, Jennifer, Shannon, Lisa, and Walker, Robert. (2006). Partner stalking: How women respond, cope, and survive. New York: Springer Publishing.

Nicol, Bran. (2006). Stalking. London: Reaktion Books.

U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2007). Table 16, Crime in the United States, 2006. Retrieved August 10, 2011, from http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2006/data/table_16.html