Myth vs. Reality: Who Is a Stalker?
What comes to mind when you think of stalking? Maybe your mind’s eye becomes filled with images of strangers in trench coats, ominously lurking a little too close for comfort. Or perhaps you visualize a big white van driving behind you, taking too many of the same turns.
While this might be the popularized idea of what stalking is, only one fifth of stalkers are strangers according to the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey.
Stalking, defined as “a pattern of behavior directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to fear for the person’s safety or the safety of others; or suffer substantial emotional distress,” is most often perpetrated by someone known to the victim. In fact, the most recent National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey reported over half of stalking perpetrators were current or former intimate partners or acquaintances.
Myths about stalking are harmful because they negatively impact a victim’s ability to seek help. If someone understands stalking as a crime committed by strangers, it might not register to them that their seemingly charming ex-partner's behavior is stalking. Just like domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking, stalking is about power and control over the victim or survivor. Tactics used by stalkers to access their victims/survivors include but are not limited to phone calls, texts, and contact via social media; gifts; approaching an individual or their family and friends; monitoring and surveillance; property damage; and threats. Stalkers tend to use multiple tactics and unwanted phone calls are most common.
As the Stalking Prevention, Awareness, and Resource Center (SPARC) puts it, we must “Know it. Name it. Stop it.”
Stalking Statistics and Gender
Research on stalking victimization in the transgender and gender non-conforming (GNC) population is severely lacking. Trans and GNC people were not specified as being a part of the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, which reported 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men experience stalking at some point in their lifetimes.
However, a 2020 study on trans populations and intimate partner violence reports that transgender people are 1.7 times more likely than cisgender people to experience intimate partner violence (IPV). Furthermore, intersectional research on stalking and all forms of IPV are vastly under researched. Nevertheless, a 2020 study on IPV and black women found that Black women are 44% more likely to experience IPV compared to 35% of white women.
If you or someone you know is being stalked, YWCA Center for Safety and Empowerment Advocates are here to help. You can reach us by calling our 24/7 toll-free hotline at 1.888.822.2983 or text the keyword YWCANEKS, followed by your message, to 847-411.