NCJ Number
187723
Journal
Violence and Victims Volume: 15 Issue: 4 Dated: Winter 2000 Pages: 357-372
Editor(s)
Roland D. Maiuro Ph.D.
Date Published
2000
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This report attempts to identify the incidence of a broad range of relationally intrusive behaviors known as obsessive relational intrusion (ORI), to identify the ways in which individuals of pursuit respond, and to assess the relative perceived severity of intrusion behaviors.
Abstract
Two studies investigated the phenomenon of obsessive relational intrusion (ORI), defined as repeated and unwanted pursuit and invasion of one’s sense of physical or symbolic privacy by another person, either stranger or acquaintance, who desires and/or presumes an intimate relationship. The first study attempted to identify the incidence of a broad range of relationally intrusive behaviors, to identify the coping responses employed by victims of ORI, and to assess the associations between coping responses and ORI behaviors. The second study assessed the perceived degree of severity of ORI behaviors. Evidence suggests that obsessive relational intrusion manifests itself in a wide range of pursuer actions. Factor analysis revealed four general types of ORI behavior: pursuit, violation, threat, and hyper-intimacy that are common in normal courtship. Responses for coping with ORI consisted of interaction, protection, retaliation, and evasion. Findings suggest that the more victimized a person is, the more that person resorts to various attempts to manage the intrusion. Virtually all ORI behaviors were perceived by recipients to be annoying. Some types of ORI behaviors were perceived to be relatively more threatening, upsetting and privacy invading than others. It was revealed that men and women did not differ in the reported incidence of either ORI behaviors or coping responses, but women perceived most types of intrusion to be more distressing than did men. Study limitations are presented. References