Highlights
An estimated 67% of victims of both traditional stalking and stalking with technology were fearful of being killed or physically harmed.
Twenty-four percent of victims said the stalking behaviors lasted 2 years or more.
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A national news program recently told a story of a stalker using a shotgun to blow a hole in the front door of a young woman on TikTok. Her father shot the intruder. He had been stalking her for a long period of time.
There are millions of people, mostly women, who live with the fear of stalking daily. Social media and other forms of technology (i.e., Apple Air Tags) bring new concerns.
It’s also concerning that the rates of crime against women exceed those of men during recent years per the Bureau of Justice Statistics. This was a rarity in past decades.
So stalking behaviors and all crimes against women must be treated seriously by the justice system and everyone else. About 16% of all stalking victims sought victim services, which is a tragedy. We must do a better job of reaching out.
Stalking is a terrifying experience. If we care about our wives and daughters and all within society, stalking must be condemned and those engaging in these behaviors must be prosecuted.
Most victims knew their stalker. Victims knowing their stalking offender have similarities with overall violence, hate crimes and mass shootings.
Bureau Of Justice Statistics Summary Of Stalking-February 2021
About 1.3% (3.4 million) of all persons age 16 or older were victims of stalking.
The percentage of persons who experienced stalking declined from 1.5% in 2016 to 1.3% in 2019.
Less than a third (29%) of all stalking victims reported the victimization to the police.
Females (1.8%) were stalked more than twice as often as males (0.8%).
An estimated 67% of victims of both traditional stalking and stalking with technology were fearful of being killed or physically harmed.
Most (67%) stalking victims knew their stalker.
Victims of both types of stalking in 2019 were more likely to be stalked by an intimate partner (35%) than victims of only traditional stalking (11%) or only stalking with technology (18%).
Victims of both stalking types were more than twice as likely to have applied for a restraining, protection, or no-contact order as victims of traditional or technology stalking only.
About 16% of all stalking victims sought victim services and 74% of the victims who sought services received them.
Two-thirds of victims of stalking with technology received unwanted phone calls, voice messages, or text messages.
Stalking with technology victims most commonly received unwanted phone calls, voice messages, or text messages (66%), followed by unwanted emails or messages via the Internet (55%). About 32% of victims of this type of stalking said their activities were monitored using social media. Twenty-nine percent experienced the offender posting or threatening to post inappropriate, unwanted, or personal information about them on the Internet.
Twenty-four percent of victims said the stalking behaviors lasted 2 years or more.
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Who Was Stalked?
The prevalence of stalking was higher among females (1.8%) than males (0.8%).
Compared to white persons, stalking prevalence was higher among persons of two or more races (3.9%) and persons who were American Indian or Alaska Native (3.3%).
Rates of stalking were lower for black persons (1.1%) and persons who were Asian, Native Hawaiian, or Other Pacific Islander (1.1%) compared to white persons (1.3%).
There was no statistically significant difference in the prevalence of stalking between white persons and Hispanic persons.
Persons ages 20 to 24 (2.0%) were stalked more often than persons in age groups over 35.
Separated persons were stalked more often (3.8%) than persons of all other marital statuses.
Persons living in households earning less than $25,000 annually (2.1%) were stalked more often than persons living in households earning $25,000 or more annually.
Who Stalks?
Behaviors To Deal With Stalking
More than three-fifths (61%) of stalking victims were fearful of not knowing what would happen next as a consequence of the stalking victimization.
Stalking victims took a variety of actions to protect themselves from the offender.
About 24% of stalking victims changed their day-to-day activities to protect themselves or stop the unwanted contacts or behaviors.
A greater percentage of victims of both traditional stalking and stalking with technology (34%) than victims of traditional stalking only (21%) or stalking with technology only (13%) changed their day-to-day activities.
Victims of both stalking types (28%) and victims of traditional stalking only (28%) were more likely to have engaged in self-defensive actions or other security measures than victims of stalking with technology only (12%).
Victims of both types of stalking were more than two times as likely to have applied for a restraining, protection, or no-contact order (13%) as victims of traditional stalking only (6%) or stalking with technology only (5%).
Source
Response From A Reader
Editor’s Note: I rarely (if ever) attach comments to my articles. But the thoughts from one commentator from Reddit was so compelling that I offer it here unedited as a reality check:
“I was a Crimes Against Women and Children Division detective for many years. When I was in this role, I attended numerous conferences and trainings in other states where the topic of Stalking was discussed. I got the sense that the same frustration I have with getting Stalking charges to stick in my state is shared by LEOs in other states due to the way their laws are written.”
“In my state, the Stalking law requires multiple convictions of lesser crimes that show a “Pattern of Conduct” before you can hit someone with a Felony Stalking charge. These crimes include obvious things like violating a protective order, domestic battery, harassment and terroristic threatening, among others.”
“The issue at hand is that the two most common “Pattern of Conduct” offenses would be Terroristic Threatening and Harassment–two crimes that law enforcement rarely actually “investigate”. In my state, all LEOs can do for these complaints, most of the time anyway, is write a report for the victim. The victim then takes that report directly to the PA’s office and requests that the PA file charges on their behalf. If the PA believes there’s enough potential they will file charges, but many times these cases are hard to prove–especially when the Terroristic Threatening/Harassment happens via text, social media, etc.”
“So we end up with a victim (generally a woman) who desperately needs law enforcement to hit her stalker with serious felony charges and law enforcement not having the criteria we need (per state law) to make those charges happen. Sometimes it’s because the victim never bothered to file charges all the times the stalker harassed her or threatened her (generally despite our pleading with her to do so each and every time), or we have a victim who DID file charges every time she had a chance but the PA’s office never carried those charges forward to get convictions we could use as the basis for a Stalking charge.”
“As a sex crimes detective who wanted to protect women and children victims it was incredibly frustrating. But for the victims, the way our Stalking law is written is more than just frustrating, it’s downright dangerous.”
See more articles on crime and justice at Crime in America.
Most Dangerous Cities/States/Countries at Most Dangerous Cities.
US Crime Rates at Nationwide Crime Rates.
National Offender Recidivism Rates at Offender Recidivism.
An Overview Of Data On Mental Health at Mental Health And Crime.
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