Forensic Psychology For Dummies (136 page)

Because of a number of high-profile cases that did lead to assaults, some countries introduced laws that make stalking a specific crime. The essence of the crime is that the targeted person is fearful because of the attentions of another person. In other words, it is harassment rather than ‘stalking’ that’s been made illegal.

In the UK this was The Protection from Harassment Act 1997. This is routinely used against stalkers in England and Wales. The general prohibition against harassment does not require the law to define the behaviours which constitute stalking. If named actions were made illegal, stalkers will just find other ways of harassing their victims.

Here are some typical stalking behaviours (most illustrated by O.J. Simpson as I describe earlier in this section):

Very high degree of inappropriate intimacy

Contact through various media, especially over the Internet
(cyberstalking)

Attempts at face-to-face contact

Overt or covert surveillance

Invasion of personal property

Intimidation and harassment

Threats and attempts at coercion

Direct aggression

Stalking can cover a great range of actions and continue over a long period of time . . . sometimes many years. There are cases that have lasted for 20, 30 or even 40 years! It may include sending many different messages, by phone, letter or e-mail, unwanted presents or directly watching the person targeted, even entering their house and stealing personal objects. Celebrities aren’t the only people who are stalked, although they’re particularly vulnerable to this sort of unwanted attention. But most stalking occurs when the victim has had some sort of prior relationship with the stalker, intimate or not. Some estimates indicate that as many as one in four women have had some form of continuous harassment from another person during their life. Men can also suffer, with more than one in ten experiencing this type of harassment. Companies or other organisations can also become the target of stalkers who bombard their executives and managers with various missives.

The following aspects of stalking relate to the stalker’s potential to become violent:

Threats

Substance abuse by the stalker

Earlier intimate relationship with the victim

Personality disorder in the stalker