Stalking: A Serious Public Health Problem

According to The National Center For Victims of Crime stalking is “a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear.”
 
Stalking is a serious social problem that can lead to anxiety, insomnia, social dysfunction, and severe depression that is of higher prevalence in stalking victims than non-stalking victims.
Statistics from the Stalking Resource Center and Colorado State University’s Women and Gender Advocacy Center indicate the following:
* 6.6 million people are stalked annually in the United States.
* 1 and 6 women (16.2%) and 1 in 19 men (5.2%) have experienced stalking at some point in their lifetime in which they felt fearful or believed that they or someone close to them would be harmed or killed.
* The majority of stalking victims are stalked by someone they know.
* 76% of intimate partner femicide victims have been stalked by their intimate partners.
* 54% of femicide victims reported stalking to police before they were killed by their stalkers.
* Almost 1/3 of stalkers have previously stalked someone.
* 1 in 8 employed stalking victims lose time from work as a result of their victimization and more than ½ lose 5 days of work or more.
* Stalking is a crime under the laws of 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories.
* Less than 1/3 of states classify stalking as a felony upon first offense.
* Repeatedly receiving unwanted telephone calls, voice, or text messages was the most commonly experienced stalking tactic for both female and male victims of stalking.
* More than 13% of college women indicated that they had been stalked while they were enrolled in college.
* 25% of stalking incidents among women in college involved cyberstalking.
* For college students, 83% of stalking incidents were not reported to police or campus law enforcement officials.
Sources:
The National Center For Victims of Crime – Stalking Resource Center http://victimsofcrime.org/our-programs/stalking-resource-center
Colorado State University – Women and Gender Advocacy Center http://www.wgac.colostate.edu/stalking-statistics

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