Stalking and Harassement Flashcards
How many people on average fall victim to stalking every year (in England and Wales?
1.5 million
How many cases of stalking involve some form of assault?
30-40%
How does stalking legislation differ fundamentally from most other kinds of criminal law?
The conduct needs to be repeated and the target is often required to have experienced fear.
What sort of behaviour would amount to harassment?
Sending text messages.
Sending letters or gifts the victim does not want.
Making threats online or in person.
Being bullied at work or school.
Stalking can also be a form of harassment.
If somebody repeatedly behaves in a way that alarms or distresses someone then that is harassment.
What is a definition of harassment (there is no legal definition)?
Unreasonable and oppressive behaviour that is repeated and may cause alarm or distress or fear of violence in a victim
OUR mnemonic.
Oppressive
Unreasonable
Repeated
How do National Police Chiefs Council and College of Policing, define ‘stalking’ (there is no legal definition)?
A pattern of unwanted, fixated and obsessive behaviour which is intrusive. It can include harassment that amounts to stalking, or stalking that causes fear of violence or serious alarm or distress
FOUR mnemonic.
Used to identify stalking.
Fixated
Obsessive
Unwanted
Repeated
The reasons why people engage in stalking are complex and varied. A number of different typologies have been proposed. The most straightforward breaks stalking down into three types:
Sexual intimate.
Acquaintance.
Stranger.
Stalking risk profile (SRP)
The SRP uses a slightly more complex typology which provides extra information to assist professionals with understanding and managing stalking behaviour.
This typology, developed by Paul Mullen, Michele Pathé and Rosemary Purcell, divides stalkers into five types:
- Intimacy seeker.
- Incompetent suitor.
- Rejected.
- Resentful.
- Predatory.
Key characteristics of: Intimacy seekers’
Want an intimate relationship with victim.
Context of loneliness.
Want an emotional connection.
Stranger or acquaintance becomes the target.
They believe they have a relationship with the victim.
Key characteristics of: Incompetent suitors
Stalk in the context of loneliness.
Motivation is to establish contact in the hope of a friendship.
Very poor communication and social skills often related to autistic spectrum disorders.
Stalk for brief periods.
Key characteristics of: rejected stalkers
These are the most common and dangerous types as they openly pursue the victim who is often a former intimate partner. They often acknowledge a complex mix of desire and revenge. They appear best to respond to a combination of coordinated sanctions and mental health intervention. They are most likely to be violent.
Victims are usually former sexual intimates.
The behaviour arises from the breakdown of an intimate relationship.
Motivation is either reconciliation or revenge.
Key characteristics of: resentful stalkers
Many of these types of stalkers have paranoid personalities or delusional disorders. They pursue a vendetta against the victim. They often feel persecuted and feel that they that are the victim.
Stalker feels mistreated or a victim of some form of injustice or humiliation.
Victims are strangers or acquaintances who are seen to have mistreated the stalker.
Stalking can arise out of a severe mental illness when the stalker develops paranoid beliefs about the victim and uses stalking as a way of ‘getting back’ at the victim.
Can arise out of a severe mental illness or to ‘even the score’ and maintained by the sense of power and control.
Often present themselves as a victim - justified in stalking to fight back against oppression.
Key characteristics of: predatory stalkers
These types of stalkers prepare for a sexual assault. They stalk to discover the victim’s vulnerabilities and seldom give warnings, so the victim is often unaware of the danger.
They often have previous convictions for sexual assault and suffer from paraphilias (sexual perversion and sexual deviation) and a propensity for violence. With paraphilias they often have an experience of intense sexual arousal to fantasies, behaviours or individuals.
Small group of stalkers who undertake this behaviour as a function of a wider intention, such as sexual assault.
Predatory stalking arises in the context of deviant sexual practices and interests.
Victims are usually female strangers in whom the stalker develops a sexual interest.
Behaviour is initiated as a way of obtaining sexual gratification or can be a way of obtaining information about the victim as a precursor to a sexual assault.
Victim is often only aware they are being stalked at the point of an attack.
