Career Dimensions of Stalking Victimization and Perpetration

Abstract

Prior literature concerning stalking, particularly in the field of criminology, finds wide variation in fundamental trends regarding stalking victimization and perpetration. There seems to be little consensus regarding when and how stalking is manifested. Furthermore, prior research to date has not addressed the etiology of stalking-related behaviors by applying principles from criminal career research, including participation, frequency, onset, and duration. The present study builds upon prior research by addressing trends in age of onset for stalking victimization and perpetration, the duration of stalking-related behaviors, and the relationship between those behaviors and other types of crime over the life course using primary data from a sample of young adults. Findings indicate that stalking victimization and perpetration share important career attribute similarities, and that self-reported history of intimate partner violence and sexual assault are strongly associated with stalking outcomes.

Protection Against Pursuit: A Conceptual and Empirical Comparison of Cyberstalking and Stalking Victimization Among a National Sample

“…Very little prior research has incorporated a theoretical approach to studying stalking victimization, with the exception of a handful of recent studies that have used college students to examine routine activities theory (Fisher et al, 2002;Mustaine & Tewksbury, 1999), self-control theory (Fox, Gover, & Kaukinen, 2009), life course theory (Nobles et al, 2009), and social learning theory (Fox, Nobles, & Akers, 2011a). Differences in stalking and cyberstalking victimization may portend differences in the nature of offenders, victims, situational antecedents, or all of the above.…”

“…First, this study uses a large nationally representative sample of adults in the United States to examine stalking and cyberstalking. With few exceptions (Basile et al, 2006;Black et al, 2011;Fisher et al, 2002;Tjaden & Thoennes, 1998), the majority of stalking research has employed small samples from the general population (Johnson & Kercher, 2009) or college student samples of various sizes (Buhi et al, 2009;Jordan et al, 2007;Mustaine & Tewksbury, 1999;Nobles et al, 2009;Patton, Nobles, & Fox, 2010). While these studies offer valuable information about stalking victimization, their external validity is limited.…”

“…Since repeated pursuit is one of the key elements of stalking, duration of contact may represent a stalking-specific indicator of seriousness. According to the extant stalking literature, among those who are stalked, the repeated pursuit behaviors usually occur over six months or less, but some victims are pursued continuously for many years (Baum et al, 2009;Fisher et al, 2002;Nobles et al, 2009;Tjaden & Thoennes, 1998). Those victims who are pursued for longer periods of time may be more likely to adopt self-protective measures.…”

“…Since stalking was first criminalized in the 1990s, researchers have devoted considerable attention to understanding the nature and extent of unwanted pursuit behaviors and their outcomes for victims (Baum, Catalano, Rand, & Rose, 2009;Björklund, Häkkänen-Nyholm, Sheridan, & Roberts, 2010;Coleman, 1997;Englebrecht & Reyns, 2011;Fisher, Cullen, & Turner, 2002;Jordan, Wilcox, & Pritchard, 2007;Mustaine & Tewksbury, 1999;Nobles, Fox, Piquero, & Piquero, 2009;Spitzberg & Cupach, 2007;Tjaden & Thoennes, 1998). A key issue that researchers have yet to reach consensus on relates to precisely how "cyberstalking" should be defined.…”

The Effects of Low Self-Control and Childhood Maltreatment on Stalking Victimization among Men and Women

“…Nationally, substantially more women (8-12%) than men (2-4%) report experiences with stalking (National Violence Against Women Survey (NVAWS), Tjaden and Thoennes 1998). 2 Some research on college students suggests that the majority of stalking victims are women (Bjerregaard 2000;McCreedy and Dennis 1996;Nobles et al 2009) while other research has not found differences in stalking victimization rates for men and women (Cupach and Spitzberg 2000;Haugaard and Seri 2001). Studies involving samples of college students report stalking victimization at much higher rates than the general public.…”