NCJ Number
227543
Date Published
March 2009
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This paper examines the nature of stalking among adolescents to determine the characteristics of stalkers and their victims and the utility of intervention orders for managing this behavior.
Abstract
Highlights of study findings include: (1) the majority of stalkers were male (64 percent); (2) the majority of victims were females (69 percent); (3) most pursued a previously known victim (98 percent) and favored direct means of contact via unwanted approaches (76 percent) and telephone calls or text messaging (67 percent); (4) threats (75 percent) and physical assaults (54 percent) were common; (5) the contexts in which stalking emerged included an extension of bullying (28 percent), retaliation for a perceived harm (22 percent), a reaction to rejection (22 percent), and sexual predation (5 percent); and (6) in 48 percent of stalking cases, the intervention order (IO) was granted. The study indicated that stalking by youth was characterized by direct, intense, overtly threatening, and all too often violent forms of pursuit. Intervening at the first sign of stalking behaviors offers the best chance to reduce stalking recidivism in the perpetrator. Identifying relevant risk factors among juveniles and developmental trajectories of this behavior will be valuable to informing prevention programs which target those at heightened risk for stalking. Recommendations are provided to advance future research in this area. To date, research on stalking has focused almost exclusively on adults, with no systematic examination of stalking among youth. Using 906 applications for intervention orders (IOs) against a defendant aged 18 years or less in the Melbourne Children's Court between January 2004 and November 2006, this study examined the nature and contexts of stalking by juveniles and the utility of IOs to manage this behavior. Tables and references