Stalking

The National Center for Victims of Crime. (2012). stalking fact sheet. Retrieved from http://www.victimsofcrime.org/docs/src/stalking-fact-sheet_english.pdf?sfvrsn=4

According to this article stalking refers to a conduct that is directed at one individual and which may cause a reasonable individual to feel fear. By the year 2012 the number of Americans who experience stalking per year was at 6.6 million per year. In the year 2012 one in every six women along with 1 in every nineteen men reported to have been stalked at some point. Greater than half of the female victims as well as greater than a third of the male stalking victims experienced stalking whilst under the age of twenty-five.    Stalking normally extends serious effects on the victim; for instance one in every eight employed stalking victims move due to victimization. Secondly, 29% fear that stalking will never stop. The pervasiveness of insomnia, anxiety, severe depression as well as severe dysfunction has been found to be much higher in stalking victims. This article reveals that stalkers amounting to about 78% utilize greater than one approach. Additionally weapons are utilized to threaten or harm victims. This article clearly brings out the recent considerable increase in stalking cases as compared to the 90s.   it is vivid that stalking is becoming an extremely serious problem that requires to be tackled urgently.

The National Policing Improvement Authority. (2009). Stalking and Harassment. Retrieved from http://www.acpo.police.uk/documents/crime/2009/200908CRISAH01.pdf

This article asserts that stalking is a non-legal within the criminal justice context. It states that stalking is a colloquial phrase used to describe a specific form of harassment such as a long term and persistent pattern of following, communication in addition to other intrusions into the victim’s privacy. This article observes that stalking is often used by the media to illustrate cases where a perpetrator is a stranger or an acquaintance. Under the Protection from Harassment Act of 1997, an individual commits a crime when he or she engages in a conduct which amounts to harassment of another   either knowing or that they are supposed to be know. Stalking may also involve a perpetrator involving in a harassment conduct towards two or more people. Section 2 of the PHA is meant to caution the victims against the illegal and unlawful deeds of harassment.  Section 4 of the PHA: it is an offence for any individual to cause fear on another person on more than one occasion. The victim must undergo fear of violence on greater than one occasion.

U.S. Department of Justice. (1998). Stalking in America: Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey. Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/169592.pdf

The article defines stalking as pointing to threatening or harassing tendency which a person engages in constantly, for instance following an individual, appearing at an individual’s home or place of, leaving written objects or messages, extending harassing phone calls or vandalizing an individual’s property. Results of a first ever countrywide research regarding stalking conducted in 1998 by the National Institute of Justice along with the National Center for Injury Prevention indicated that 8% and 2% of women and men respectively had at some point been stalked. The Study indicates that approximately 1,006,970 med and 370,990 are normally stalked on an annual basis. Women are considerably more likely to be stalked by their intimate partners (59% and 30%, respectively); approximately half of the stalking takes place when the relationship is intact. Stalking is a crime punishable by law in many states; though; individuals are advised to report to the police any form of persistent harassment by any individual. The article vividly presents the much required data regarding the stalking statistics in the US. This study additionally found a very strong link between stalking and other kinds of intimate relationships; 81% of women who had been stalked by a former lover had were at some point bodily assaulted by the very partner whereas 31% were sexually assaulted by their partners.  

Kirkland, C. (2001). Campus Stalking. Retrieved from http://www.vawnet.org/Assoc_Files_VAWnet/CALCASA-CampusStalking.pdf

Between 1999 and2001, Congress extended $30 million dollars to address and decrease sexual assault, stalking as well as relationship violence within campuses. This article shows the actuality that stalking has become a particularly thorny issue even in campuses. Students have become perpetrators as well as victims of the stalking menace within the US campuses overtime. According to the article the biggest obstacle towards dealing with stalking is the actuality that different states possess distinct descriptions of stalking. For instance, an act in one state may be an offense in one state and not in another.  An additional challenge of dealing with stalking is the actuality that it is not a single crime but a series of actions which when observed individually may seem legal; for example, sending one a birthday card, standing across   the street of one’s home or calling someone. Nevertheless, when the above actions extend fear to the victim they then amount to an offense. Similar to school violence stalking in American campuses has become very prevalent considering that this is an environment which would be expected to have the least number of stalkers.   Taking into mind that campuses are highly social environments and that for instance students attend classes together it is indeed difficult to define as well as prove that stalking is taking place. The article illustrates that stalking in campuses must be considered dangerous since it makes learners fearful, anxious and this disrupts their education.

Ellison, L., & Akdeniz, Y. (2001). Cyber-stalking: the Regulation of Harassment on the Internet. Retrieved from http://www.cyber-rights.org/documents/stalking_article.pdf

Within the last decade there has been a sequence of “moral panics” with regard to information accessible within the internet as well as its usage surrounding criminal activity. The occurrence of cyber-stalking along with on-line harassment has been seen to the near future’s internet-associated moral panic. Within the UK there has been significant press coverage with regard to stalking cases; the coverage has focused on menacing and bizarre behavior as well as the devastating effects that it has on its victims.  The article states that in 2012 the UK in contrast with the US which had already set up laws to caution cyber-stalking still lagged behind in delivering justice and protection due to deficient laws. Cyber-stalking laws are tricky to institute and enforce due to the complexity associated with online activity. Some of the normal interactions online may be regarded as cyber-stalking thus leading unwarranted criminal activity. This article describes online harassment as involving sending or receiving abusive or obscene emails, electronic sabotage such as sending hundreds of junk emails or online impersonation. Indeed the internet has made it easy for stalkers to anonymously stalk their victims without their knowledge and leaving no evidence that can be used in a court of law.