U S Department of Justice

Stalking in America: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey U S Department of Justice

Publisher Marketing: Unprecedented interest in stalking over the past decade has produced media accounts of stalking victims, passage of antistalking laws in all 50 States and the District of Columbia, and development of a model antistalking code. Despite this interest, research on stalking has been limited to studies of small, unrepresentative, or clinical samples of known stalkers; law journal reviews of the constitutionality and effectiveness of specific antistalking statutes; and case studies of individual stalkers. Thus, empirical data have been lacking on such fundamental questions about stalking as: How much stalking is there in the United States? Who stalks whom? How often do stalkers overtly threaten their victims? How often is stalking reported to the police? What are the psychological and social consequences of stalking? This Research in Brief presents data from the first-ever national study on stalking and addresses these and related questions. Since the data show stalking to be much more prevalent than previously thought and include other findings of broad public concern, they have significance for legislators, policymakers, intervention planners, and researchers as well as the public health and criminal justice communities. The data are from the National Violence Against Women (NVAW) Survey, a nationally representative telephone survey of 8,000 U. S. women and 8,000 U. S. men (see "Survey Methodology and Demographic Description of the Sample," page 15). The survey, which asked detailed questions about respondents' experiences with violence, including stalking, was sponsored jointly by the National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through a grant to the Center for Policy Research.