Framing and perceptions of stalking: the influence of conduct severity and the perpetrator–target relationship

Abstract

Research has demonstrated that the way in which questions are presented (i.e., framed) has the capacity to influence responses to subsequent questions (Tourangeau & Rasinski, 1988).In the context of stalking, perception research has often been framed in terms of whether or not particular behaviours constitute stalking. The current research investigates whether the framing of the opening question (question frame), conduct severity and the perpetrator-target relationship influence perceptions of stalking. Two studies employed experimental 3 × 3 independent factorial designs: one to examine question frame and conduct severity, the other to examine question frame and the perpetrator-target relationship. Participants in both studies (total N = 449) were presented with vignettes and asked to answer six questions relating to the behaviour described. Question frame was found to impact on the classification of behaviour, with a greater proportion of participants indicating that the behaviour represented harassment or stalking rather than an illegal act. Consistent with previous research, conduct severity and the perpetrator-target relationship influenced perceptions of stalking. However, there was no evidence to suggest that the framing of the opening question influenced these perceptions. The implications of these findings for previous perception research are discussed.

Police officer perceptions of harassment in England and Scotland

“…The term ‘harassment’ was employed as opposed to ‘stalking’ as this is the term employed by English police officers following the dictates of the Protection from Harassment Act (). It is worth noting that a recent study found that the framing of repetitive behaviour as either ‘harassment’ or ‘stalking’ did not influence perceptions of stalking using four of the five scale items used in the current work (Scott, Rajakaruna, & Sheridan, ). The scale items have been employed in previous works (e.g., Scott & Sheridan, ; Scott & Tse, ; Scott et al ., , ); while the vignettes were developed following a review of vignettes employed in recent works (e.g., Scott & Gavin, ; Scott & Sheridan, ; Scott et al ., , ).…”

Cultures of gendered violence: An integrative review of measures of attitudinal support for violence against women

“…Rather than scale development, community surveys more commonly employ short vignettes and seek to establish participants perceptions of stalking with respect to key areas of interest (seriousness and gender-based differences for example). Within this well-established sub-field, several studies emerge as highly influential, such as by Scott and colleagues (Scott & Sheridan, 2011;Scott, et al, 2010Scott, et al, , 2014, Sheridan (Sheridan et al, 2001(Sheridan et al, , 2002, Dennison (Dennison, 2007;Dennison & Thomson, 2000, and Dunlap and colleagues (Dunlap et al, 2012).…”

The Impact of Criminalization of Stalking on Italian Students: Adherence to Stalking Myths

“…Based on existing studies, some relevant factors regarding the perception of stalking have emerged, including the previous relationship between stalker and victim (Scott, Lloyd, & Gavin, 2010;Scott & Sheridan, 2011;Sheridan & Davies, 2001b;Weller et al, 2013), gender (Dennison & Thomson, 2002;Phillips, Quirk, Rosenfeld, & O'Connor, 2004;Scott & Sheridan, 2011;Sheridan, Gillett, Davies, Blaauw, & Patel, 2003;Sinclair, 2012), persistence (Dennison, 2007;Dennison & Thomson, 2002;Scott & Sheridan, 2011), and presence of threats and level of fear or distress (Dennison & Thomson, 2002;Hills & Taplin, 1998;Phillips et al, 2004;Scott, Rajakaruna, & Sheridan, 2014;Sheridan et al, 2003). In contrast, respondents' personal experiences of stalking do not appear to influence their sensitivity, attitudes, or evaluation of harassment behaviors (De Fazio & Galeazzi, 2004;Phillips et al, 2004).…”