NCJ Number
191022
Journal
Legal and Criminological Psychology Volume: 6 Issue: 2 Dated: September 2001 Pages: 133-147
Editor(s)
Ron Blackburn
Date Published
September 2001
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This article reviewed several issues associated with stalking and centered around the problem of defining the crime within the United Kingdom.
Abstract
Stalking has become widely recognized as a significant social problem. However, there is no agreed upon definition of what constitutes stalking. This article discussed the difficulties of defining a crime in which the behavior of perpetrators is often ostensibly innocuous. This article reviewed 12 studies revealing that stalkers engage in very similar patterns of activities. This means it may be possible to create guidelines for what does and does not constitute stalking. The article provided an overview of various attempts made to classify stalkers and their victims, relating the attempts back to the finding that commonalities in stalkers' methods do exist. This article concluded that stalkers do engage in similar patterns of behavior and that the general public hold shared ideas on what does and does not constitute a stalking act. It was recommended that researchers employ a single method of classifying stalker types. This would assist in differentiating stalking from non-stalking acts. References and appendix