Tracking Stalkers, Part Two

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.

While few state stalking laws specifically address technological forms of surveillance, many do include specific prohibitions against the use of electronic means of communication. To counter the often elusive nature of stalking, some states attempt to list all possible forms of “technostalking,” a near impossible task given the exponential growth in all technologies. With the pervasive presence of computers and Internet use (to include eTherapy), cyberstalking has been specifically recognized in virtually all jurisdictions.

In it’s simplest form, the Internet can be used to search out a range of personal information about the intended victim. On a more insidious level, by using the victim’s Internet protocol address (which is included in all directly sent and indirectly forwarded emails), stalkers can easily access the victim’s computer in order to remotely install spyware. Legal in all states, spyware was originally designed for parents to monitor their children’s use of the Internet. Cyberstalkers apply such programs illegally; that is, to covertly record all websites visited by the victim and to read all emails the victim sends and receives. In addition, spyware records every keystroke made on the victim’s computer (both onand offline), which is then sent directly to the cyberstalker’s computer. Perhaps most

intrusive of all, spyware allows the cyberstalker access to every file on the victim’s computer and searches for all passwords. Many spyware programs now have a reinstall feature where should the victim discover and delete the spyware, it automatically reinstalls itself when deleted.

Given the comparative recency of national stalking laws, data regarding the crime of stalking (i.e., reports, arrests, convictions, demographics of victim and offender, etc.) have only been collected by law enforcement officials since the late 1990s (Fox, 1999). The first national study of stalking was co-sponsored by the National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Tjaden & Thoennes, 1998). Conducted by the Center for Policy Research between late 1995 and mid-1996, the study revealed that 1 out of every 12 women and 1 out of every 45 men will be stalked during their lifetimes, representing over 1 million women and over 370 thousand men stalked annually.

Several typologies of stalkers have been developed over the years (Del Ben & Fremouw, 2002; Harmon, 1995; Mohandie, Meloy, & McGowan, 2006; Mullen, Pathe, Purcell, & Stuart, 1999; Wright, Burgess, Laszlo, McCrary, & Douglas, 1996; Zona, Sharma, & Lane, 1993). One of the earli-

est classification schemas was developed by Zona, Sharma, and Lane. The researchers identified three types of stalkers: simple obsessional, love obsessional, and erotomanic. The category of simple obsessional (the largest of the three subtypes) represents the stalkers who knew their victims, were motivated by anger or revenge, and were most likely to become physically violent. This group was characterized by the presence of attachment disorders and the near absence of antisocial personality disorders. The second largest subtype, love obsessional, tended to stalk strangers with whom they were obsessed. The final and smallest of the subtypes, erotomanic, also stalked strangers but were motivated by the erroneous and even delusional belief that the victims were in love with them. Erotomanic stalkers are typically female, apt to stalk public figures, and the least likely to make threats or behave violently.

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