Stalking became defined as a social problem in the U.S. in 1990, after several celebrities and extensive media attention revealed that the targets of stalking are not merely harassed, but are victimized similarly to other victims of violent crimes. Scholarly and legal definitions of stalking rest on three criteria: a) a pattern of harassing behavior by the stalker; b) use of force or threat of force and/or intimidation; and c) the target's admission to feeling fearful. Targets are not defined as having been stalked unless they were afraid, making this crime unique among crimes of interpersonal violence. This study, using a national random sample of 8,000 adult women (between the ages of 18 and 65+), analyzes who is stalked, relations between target and stalker, and the effects of being stalked on targets. Seventeen percent of women said they had been stalked (N=1,336), 83 percent had not (N=6,665), suggesting that the problem is perhaps more widespread than generally thought. Native American women, younger women, divorced/separated women, slightly more educated women, and unemployed women or students were stalked more than other women. My analysis focused on four dependent concepts: (1) who was stalked versus not; (2) whether the target felt fearful; (3) the amount of personal distress caused by the stalking; and (4) the level of "institutional" response by the targeted woman (e.g., calling the police, seeking restraining orders, or filing criminal charges). The predictor concepts included: (1) the number of stalking experiences endured; (2) the relationship between the stalker and the target (spouse/partner or ex- or other family member, boyfriend, acquaintance, and stranger); (3) the content of the stalking practices (physical monitoring, communicative monitoring, and other); (4) the experience of fear; and (5) women's sociodemographic characteristics. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sociology in partial fulfillment of
the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2003. / Date of Defense: July 25, 2003. / Stalking, Violence, Gender / Includes bibliographical references. / Patricia Yancey Martin, Professor Directing Dissertation; Marie Cowart, Outside Committee Member; Irene Padavic, Committee Member; Lori Reid, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_168128 |
| Contributors | Dietz, Noella A. (authoraut), Martin, Patricia Yancey (professor directing dissertation), Cowart, Marie (outside committee member), Padavic, Irene (committee member), Reid, Lori (committee member), Department of Sociology (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
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