| Stalking in the Context of Domestic Violence According to the 1998 Third Annual Report to Congress on Stalking and Domestic Violence, the most likely victims of stalking are intimate partners or former intimate partners of the stalker--a fact that does not come as any surprise to advocates, law enforcement or criminal justice professionals. The report also states that this category of victims of stalking also represents the group that is stalked for the longest period of time and they are also the most likely to suffer physical violence and sexual assault by their stalker. Stalking behavior and threats may often serve as predictors of physical and/or sexual assault or murder. An estimated 1/2 of all stalkers approach their victims at the victim's workplace and offenders who stalk in the context of "separation violence" are the most likely to kill their victim. The 1998 Report to Congress states that "it is estimated that stalkers are violent toward their victims between 25% and 35% of the time, and the group most likely to be violent is composed of those who have had an intimate relationship with the victim. Nearly 1/3 of all women killed in this country die at the hands of a current or former intimate. Although no national figures are available, it is estimated that between 29% and 54% of female murder victims are battered women. A significant number of these murders and attempted murders of women are believed to be preceded by stalking." (Stalking and Domestic Violence: The Third Annual Report to Congress Under the Violence Against Women Act (1998), Violence Against Women Grants Office, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, NCJ-172204, pg. 2.) While a popular theme for movie and television screenplays is that of the vulnerable female being stalked by a dangerous stranger, this category of stalking victims is in fact, not nearly as common as that of intimate partner stalking. The chances that you will be stalked, harassed, threatened or harmed by someone you do not know are actually rather small. 23% of female victims of stalking are stalked by strangers and approximately 19% by acquaintances, compared to 38% of female victims who are stalked by a spouse or an ex-spouse. Conversely, male stalking victims are stalked more often by strangers (36%) or acquaintances (34%) than by ex-spouses (13%). Other facts about stalking are: It is a gender-bias crime, affecting women almost 4 times as often as men; 100% of stalkers "research" their victims, gathering information from family, friends, co-workers, the internet, post office, and other sources; Approximately 25% of stalkers will physically attack their victim, rape or attempt to rape the victim (.3% of all women surveyed in the National Violence Against Women Survey sponsored by the National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control had experienced a completed or attempted rape in the 12 months preceding the survey, and 1.9% experienced a physical assault in the 12 months preceding the survey); Less than 2% of stalkers attempt to murder or actually murder their victims; 26% of stalking victims reported their victimization caused them to lose time from work and 7% of victims who lost time from work said they never returned to work; Victims who lost time from and returned to work on average missed 11 working days; Native American women are stalked more often than stalking victims of other races. (Spence-Diehl, Emily (1999). "Stalking: A Handbook for Victims" (Learning Publications), as detailed in Domestic Violence Report, (April/May 2000) Volume 5, No. 4, pg. 52 and 64; and Lemon, Nancy (June/July 2000). "Stalking and Domestic Violence: The Third Annual Report to Congress Under the Violence Against Women Act". Domestic Violence Report, Volume 5, No. 5, pg. 72.) Stalking behavior is often characterized strongly by a perceived need or desire on the part of the stalker to establish or maintain power and control over the victim, linking stalking to domestic violence in clear and dramatic ways. Victims of domestic violence rarely exaggerate the violence in their lives, but instead most often minimize violence perpetrated against them. As a result of these factors, a person who reports stalking in the context of domestic violence or in the aftermath of a separation in the relationship of intimate partners, is very probably not overreacting to an imaginary threat. As previously noted, a clear conclusion drawn from the National Violence Against Women (NVAW) Survey is that women tend to be stalked most often by intimate partners, defined as being current or former spouses, cohabitants or boyfriends. Prior to the Survey, it was thought that women are most likely to be stalked by an intimate partner in the aftermath of a relationship, but the Survey provides evidence that women who are stalked by intimate partners are stalked almost as often when the relationship is still intact as when the relationship has ended. 21% of female victims reported that stalking occurred before the relationship ended, 43% after the relationship ended, and 36% said it occurred both before and after the relationship ended. This data provides corroborating evidence to support what battered women already knew: men who batter typically exhibit controlling behavior to an extraordinary degree. The reason most often identified by stalking victims to explain why they felt they had been stalked was that the stalker had wanted to control them. The same controlling behavior exhibited by batterers often characterizes the behavior of a stalker as well. For instance, batterers are commonly known to: follow their victim to work, ostensibly to make sure the victim actually reports to work and does not attempt to escape the relationship or meet with a "new lover" or any number of other persons who might be on the batterer's list of people the victim has been forbidden to have contact with); show up at the victim's workplace unannounced to make sure the victim hasn't left work to go where she has been forbidden to go, or to engage in any of the activities listed in (1) above); leave the victim at home alone while the batterer ostensibly goes to perform an invented errand, only to make a surprise return within a few minutes in the hope of "catching" the victim engaging in a forbidden act, such as talking on the telephone, watching a television program, etc.; insist they be allowed to observe the victim's actions at all times, even denying the victim privacy while taking a shower or bath; eavesdrop on the victim's telephone conversations; read the victim's mail or private journals; destroy property, often targeting property which the victim has a sentimental attachment to; threaten the victim with bodily harm, destruction of property, or death of a pet or even a child, to coerce the victim into passive submission. It is important to remember that every day, at least four or five women are tracked down and murdered by a man they are trying to escape. It is an inescapable truth that most victims who leave their abuser and as a result of their defection from the relationship, are later murdered, are first stalked prior to the actual act of murder. There is almost always an element of premeditation or planning in violent acts that end in murder (as well as acts of sexual assault). Certainly, some victims are murdered by their abuser as they wait outside a courtroom for a hearing or in some other appointed, pre-arranged place where the victim erroneously assumes, with tragic consequences, that her safety is ensured. However, many battered women who become murder statistics are first actively pursued by an abuser, who searches for his victim through phone, school and court records, daycare centers or the victim's place of employment, and then watches and follows his victim with the intention of violently retaliating against the victim for attempting to extricate herself from the relationship. It is obviously important that criminal justice actors, advocates, employers and healthcare professionals take time to hear a victim's concerns carefully, without dismissing the victim's worries and anxiety out of hand. By simply listening, the danger index for violent, possibly lethal retaliation by an abuser in the aftermath of a relationship--particularly a relationship that had been previously characterized by domestic violence--can be appropriately and accurately evaluated in many instances. |
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