Categories: General
      Date: Mar  1, 2010
     Title: Tracking Stalkers, Part One

Although it is a problem as old as human society, stalking has only been deemed a crime since 1990 when California enacted the nation’s first anti-stalking law. Since then, all states, the District of Columbia, and the federal government have passed laws defining and prohibiting stalking (Miller, 2001). From the Winter 2006 Forensic Examiner; written by Bruce Gross, PhD.

Delimiting Stalking

While the legal definition of stalking varies on certain dimensions between jurisdictions, virtually all require a pattern or course of conduct (i.e., twice or more) by the alleged perpetrator of repeated and unwanted contact with the alleged victim. Such contact may include any or all of the following behaviors:

• Communication by phone, mail, or email.

• Sending, leaving, or giving gifts.

• Direct or indirect threats of harm to the person, property, pets, and/or loved ones of the targeted individual.

• Following or hiring someone to follow the targeted person.

• Tracking the targeted individual by use of a global positioning system or similar technology.

• Voyeurism (including the installation of video- and/or audio-recording devices in the target’s home without his or her knowledge or permission).

• Obtaining personal information about the target (through discarded trash; family, friends, neighbors, and/or co-workers; private investigators; public records; Internet searches; etc.).

• Lying in wait.

All stalking behavior can be classified based on the purpose of the given behavior, be it surveillance, pursuance, intrusion, control, harassment, intimidation, threats, or violence (Miller, 2001).

Most legal definitions of stalking include the intent of the alleged perpetrator (i.e., willful and malicious) as well as the subjective experience of fear on the part of the alleged victim. That is, stalking is a victim-defined crime rather than one that relies on the opinions of observers or the “reasonable man” standard. A pattern of unwanted behavior reaches the threshold of stalking if and when those behaviors evoke fear in the alleged victim, which need not occur contemporaneously (People v. Ewing, 1999).

To be continued.