The Crime of Stalking: How Big Is the Problem?

November 1997

Scientific information on stalking in the United States has been limited, despite unprecedented media, legal, and legislative attention to the subject over the past decade. To better understand the broader context of violence in which stalking occurs, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collaborated in a comprehensive survey of violence against
women. The National Violence Against Women Survey, conducted by the Center for Policy Research, collected data from 8,000 women and 8,000 men 18 years of age or older on a broad range of issues related to violence.

This Research Preview discusses the stalking aspects of the study. Further findings from the survey are anticipated by spring 1998. With regard to stalking, the survey
collected data on:

- The prevalence of stalking.
- The characteristics of offenders, victims, and stalking behaviors.
- Victims’ perceptions of why they are stalked.
- The co-occurrence of stalking and domestic violence.
- Victims’ responses to stalking, including their involvement with the justice system.
- The psychological and social consequences of stalking.

Survey findings indicated that stalking is a bigger problem than previously thought, affecting about 1.4 million victims annually. The survey showed that stalking was
strongly linked to the controlling behavior and physical, emotional, and sexual abuse perpetrated against women by intimate partners. About half of all female stalking
victims reported their victimization to the police and about 25 percent obtained a restraining order.

To screen for stalking victimization, the survey asked about specific harassing and threatening behaviors respondents had experienced repeatedly from marital and
cohabitating partners, friends, acquaintances, relatives, and strangers. The word “stalking” was not used in the survey. Researchers defined stalking conservatively—as “a course of conduct directed at a specific person that involves repeated physical or visual proximity, nonconsensual communication, or verbal, written, or implied threats” sufficient to cause fear in a reasonable person.1

The survey was fielded between November 1995 and May 1996. The national sample of households was generated through random-digit dialing; interviews averaged 25 minutes and were conducted using a computer-assisted telephone interviewing system. Of those who started the interview, 97 percent of women and 98 percent of men completed it. ..more.. by Patricia Tjaden, Ph.D., Center for Policy Research