Chapter 22 Supplement Special Topics
Section 2, Stalking
Statistical Overview
- Data from the National Violence Against Women Survey, a nationally representative
telephone survey of 8,000 men and 8,000 women ages eighteen and older, indicate that
2.2% of males and 8.1% of females report being stalked during their lifetime. The survey
defines stalking as a course of conduct directed at a specific person that involves repeated
(two or more occasions) visual or physical proximity; nonconsensual communication;
verbal, written, or implied threats; or a combination thereof, that would cause a reasonable
person fear (BJS 1999).
- Four out of five stalking victims are women. By comparison, 94% of the stalkers identified
by female victims and 60% of the stalkers identified by male victims were male (Violence
Against Women Grants Office July 1998, 10).
- With respect to stranger and acquaintance stalking, 1.8% of all U.S. women, compared
with 0.8% of all U.S. men, have been stalked by strangers; and 1.6% of all U.S. women,
compared with 0.8% of all U.S. men have been stalked by acquaintances (Ibid., 12).
- Based on comparisons between estimated numbers of stalkers per total U.S. population, and
numbers of cyberstalkers per online population, it is estimated that there are 63,000 Internet
stalkers cruising the information superhighway, stalking an estimated 474,000 targets
(Cyberangels 2000).
- The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office estimates that e-mail and other electronic
communications were factors in approximately 20 percent of the roughly 600 cases handled
by its Stalking Threat Assessment Unit (Reno 1999).
Cyberstalking
Stalking has now taken a turn into cyberspace on the information superhighway. Although
there is no universally accepted definition of cyberstalking, the term is generally used to refer
to the use of the Internet, e-mail, or other telecommunication technologies to harass or stalk
another person. Essentially, cyberstalking is an extension of the physical form of stalking.
Most state and federal stalking laws require that the stalker make a direct threat of violence
against the victim, while some require only that the alleged stalker's course of conduct
constitute an implied threat. Although some cyberstalking conduct involving annoying or
menacing behavior might fall short of illegal stalking under current laws, such behavior may
be a prelude to real-life stalking and violence and should be treated seriously. Cyberstalking
has the potential to move from a URL address to an IRL (in real life) address--from virtual to
actual (Gregorie 2000).
In Cyberstalking: A New Challenge for Law Enforcement and Industry--A Report from the
U.S. Attorney General to the Vice President (1999), cyberstalking is identified as a growing
problem. According to the report, there are currently more than 80 million adults and 10
million children with access to the Internet in the United States. Assuming the proportion of
cyberstalking victims is even a fraction of the proportion of persons who have been the victims
of offline stalking within the preceding twelve months, the report estimates there may be
potentially tens or even hundreds of thousands of cyberstalking victims in the United States
(Gregorie 2000).
TECHNIQUES
Cyberstalkers use a variety of techniques. They may initially use the Internet to identify and
track their victims. They may then send unsolicited e-mail, including hate, obscene, or
threatening mail. Live chat harassment abuses the victim directly or through electronic
sabotage (for example, flooding the Internet chat channel to disrupt the victim's conversation).
With newsgroups, the cyberstalker can create postings about the victim or start rumors which
spread through the bulletin board system. Cyberstalkers may also set up a Web page(s) on the
victim with personal or fictitious information or solicitations to readers. Another technique is
to assume the victim's persona online, such as in chat rooms, for the purpose of sullying the
victim's reputation, posting details about the victim, or soliciting unwanted contacts from
others. More complex forms of harassment include mailbombs (mass messages that virtually
shutdown the victim's e-mail system by clogging it), sending the victim computer viruses, or
sending electronic junk mail (spamming). There is a clear difference between the annoyance of
unsolicited e-mail and online harassment. However, cyberstalking is a course of conduct that
takes place over a period of time and involves repeated deliberate attempts to cause distress to
the victim (Ibid.).
RECOMMENDED ACTIONS
In many cases, existing laws may cover the unlawful conduct at issue, but the use of the
Internet is presenting numerous investigatory challenges with regard to jurisdiction,
anonymity, and constitutionally-protected free speech that should be addressed. To address the
investigation, prosecution and prevention of cyberstalking, Attorney General Janet Reno
(1999) made the following recommendations to Vice President Gore on cyberstalking:
- States should review their laws to determine whether they address cyberstalking and if not,
promptly expand laws to include same.
- Federal law should be amended to prohibit the transmission of any communication in
interstate or foreign commerce with intent to threaten or harass another person where such
communication places that person in reasonable fear of death or bodily injury.
- Law enforcement agencies need training on the extent of cyberstalking and appropriate
investigative techniques.
- The Internet industry should create an industry-supported Web site containing information
about cyberstalking and what to do if confronted with the problem.
Significant Legislation
As of April 1, 2000, twenty-three states had included electronic forms of communication
within their harassment or stalking laws.
For example, Section 646.9 of the California Penal Code, Paragraph (g) determines the
circumstances under which a person is liable for the tort of stalking: "Credible threat" is "a
verbal or written threat including that performed by an electronic communication device, or a
threat implied by a pattern of conduct or a combination of verbal, written, or electronically
communicated statements and conduct, made with the intent and the apparent ability to carry
out the threat so as to cause the person who is the target of the threat to reasonably fear for his
or her safety, or the safety of his or her family." Paragraph (g) defines "electronic
communication" devices as "including but not limited to telephones, cellular telephones,
computers, video recorders, fax machines, or pagers." (CA Penal Code Sec. 646.9 (g) & (h),
California Cyber Stalking Law of 1998).
In the first case tried under the California cyberstalking law, a security guard was found guilty
and incarcerated for using Internet bulletin boards and chat rooms to solicit the rape of a
woman who had rejected his romantic advances.
Promising Practices
- Dover, NH Police Anti-Stalking Unit. The Dover Police Department, with assistance from
a USDOJ Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant, has created an
Anti-Stalking Unit that is charged to investigate all harassing, threatening, and stalking
behaviors. It is a crime in New Hampshire if someone repeatedly follows a person, appears
at their home, or engages in threatening contact. The unit staff are on hand to assist all
stalking victims in assessing risks and developing safety plans. Their ten-minute video
called "Stalked? What to Do" provides basic information about how to deal with stalking
and is available for free by telephone or e-mail (staff e-mail addresses appear on the Web
site). Dover Police Department, Dover, NH (603-742-4646) <www.ci.dover.nh.us>
(then select City Departments, Police Department, Anti-Stalking Unit).
- San Diego County Stalking Strike Force. The District Attorney's Office in San Diego
County, CA developed a Stalking Strike Force to increase awareness of problems in
defending victims from stalkers, to better assess risks to their safety, and to improve the
tracking of stalkers and the collection of viable evidence to effectively prosecute them. The
unit is comprised of two attorneys, a victim/witness professional, and an investigator. The
unit comes in contact with victims of stalkers in two ways--through law enforcement
referral or through the stalking victim hotline in its office. Employing a proactive approach
from the first moment of contact, they assign an investigator to the case to determine risk to
the victim's safety and the possible need for a restraining order. Victims meet with the
victim/witness professional to learn preventive measures to widen their safety net and limit
their contact with the stalker. The unit has developed response plans that include set-ups for
taping stalker phone calls and voicemail to screen telephone calls.
- When victims have been physically threatened by their stalker, they are advised to
relocate. An emergency fund is in place to assist victims in rapid relocations.
- The stalking unit helps victims obtain restraining orders when necessary.
- The stalking unit's investigator continues to monitor and collect evidence on the stalker
once the victim has relocated.
Stalking Strike Force, Office of the District Attorney, 330 West Broadway, San Diego, CA
92101 (619-531-4040).
Web Sites for Victims of Cyberstalking
- <http://members.aol.com/aardvarc1/stalking/stalking.htm>. The Stalking site at the "An
Abuse, Rape & Domestic Violence Aid & Resource Collection" Web site at AOL.com is
designed to: support stalking victims; explain the parameters of the crime; and address such
issues as what constitutes stalking, who are the victims, what to do if one is stalked, and
exercising one's legal rights. The site also provides links to the stalking laws in all fifty
states.
- <http://www.cyberangels.org>. This Web site has been in existence since 1995 and is
considered the largest Internet safety and education program for parents and children.
Cyberangels has Net Patrol teams that regularly monitor the Internet for child crimes,
cyberstalkers, and fraudulent scams, and report them to law enforcement authorities. The
Web site provides support groups for victims of stalking and harassment over the Internet
and gives tips on how to document and report cyberstalking. Cyberangels also provides
additional site links and reviews and recommends blocking/filtering software.
Back to Table of Contents
2000 NVAA Text | Chapter 22.2 |
The information on this page is archived and provided for reference purposes only.