Perspectives On Stalking

ìHere is the latest word in scholarship on stalkers and those they terrify... a mandatory reading for anyone wanting to stay ahead of the curve on the flourishing clinical and legal literature about this worldwide and vexing problem.î - John Monahan, PhD Doherty Professor of Law, University of Virginia At what point does following a person, or trying to intimidate him or her into accepting one's advances, become "stalking"? How is stalking related to gender? Who is the stalker? What are the long-term effects of stalking? These are among the many issues explored in this groundbreaking empirical investigation. This book based on two special issues of the journal Violence & Victims presents in-depth findings on both victim and perpetrator, and includes a new understanding of the categories of stalking behavior: simple obsessional, love obsessional, and erotomanic.

Stalking has increasingly drawn the attention of mental health professionals, legal professionals and the public. This book provides up-to-date information on a variety of areas within stalking research, including practical approaches to stalking risk assessment and management, along with unique information related to celebrity stalking, cyberstalking, and forensic assessment.

The Psychology of Stalking is the first scholarly book on stalking ever published. Virtually every serious writer and researcher in this area of criminal psychopathology has contributed to this comprehensive resource. These chapters explore stalking from social, psychiatric, psychological, legal, and behavioral perspectives. New thinking and data are presented on threats, pursuit characteristics, psychiatric diagnoses, offender-victim typologies, cyberstalking, false victimization syndrome, erotomania, stalking and domestic violence, stalking of public figures, and many other aspects of stalking. This landmark text is of interest to both professionals and other thoughtful individuals who recognize the serious nature of this ominous social behavior at the end of the millennium. Dr. Reid Meloy is a diplomate in forensic psychology of the American Board of Professional Psychology. He was Chief of the Forensic Mental Health Division for San Diego County, and now devotes his time to a private civil and criminal forensic practice, research, writing, and teaching. He is an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the School of Medicine of the University, San Diego, and an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego School of Law. He is also a Fellow for the Society of Personality Assessment and is currently President of the American Academy of Forensic Psychology. In 1992 he received the Distinguished Contribution to Psychology as a Profession Award from the California Psychological Association. He is a sought-after speaker and psychological consultant on various civil and criminal cases throughout the United States, most recently the Madonna stalking case and the Polly Klass murder case. In 1997, he completed work as the forensic psychologist for the prosecution in the Oklahoma City bombing cases.

Provides multidisciplinary coverage of stalking behavior worldwide from both academic and practical approaches Psycho-Criminological Approaches to Stalking Behavior: The International Perspective is a thorough, up-to-date overview of stalking perpetration and victimization in different regions of the world. This authoritative book brings together contributions from a team of leading scholars and practitioners that discuss a diverse range of interrelated topics and issues relevant to stalking and intrusive behavior from both theoretical and practical contexts. Whereas most of the literature on the subject is written from a Western viewpoint, this unique volume examines empirical research, policies, and practices from Asian and African countries, as well as those from Europe, the Americas, and Australia, to provide a truly global perspective. Divided into three parts, the book first examines theories and research on cross-national differences in stalking among college students, ex-partner stalking in Finland, cyberstalking victimization in Singapore, the heterogeneity of stalking and stalkers in Australia, public familiarity and understanding of stalking/harassing legislation in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and more. The book’s second part focuses on national portraits of stalking in a number of understudied populations, including Lithuania, Spain, Denmark, Portugal, and South Africa. Finally in the third section of the book, the chapters largely emphasize policy and best practice, including the Dutch model of policing stalking, risk assessment and management of stalking in Sweden, psycho-legal responses to online interpersonal harm, the German approach to stopping stalking, the United Kingdom response to assessing and managing stalking, and the work of the Danish Stalking Centre. This important contribution to the field: Offers insights from international professionals applicable in other geographical contexts Discusses the factors that influence social awareness and responses to stalking Explores the importance of victim vulnerability factors when managing risk of stalking Presents real-world case studies of stalking behavior, intimate partner violence, stalking victimization, and statutory and law enforcement efforts Reviews the intervention practices of the support institutions and justice systems of different countries Psycho-Criminological Approaches to Stalking Behavior: The International Perspective is an ideal primary or supplementary text for courses in criminology, criminal justice, forensic psychology, and social and behavioral science, as well as a valuable source of reference for those who deal with offenders or victims of stalking, including law enforcement agents, mental health professionals, legal practitioners, social services personnel, and policy makers.

Stalking--characterized by harassment, repeated calling, sending inappropriate letters or gifts, unsuitable use of social media, confrontation, and other unwanted behaviorsis a worldwide problem that is on the rise, especially the incidence and prevalence of cyberstalking. This book presents a collection of prominent articles published in the peer-reviewed journal Violence and Victims, written by experts on stalking from a variety of social science disciplines. Authors present research related to stalking victims and perpetrators, cyberstalking, how to identify stalking, and stalking in a variety of settings with a focus on college campuses.

"The truth is I hurt people. It's what I do. It's all I do. It's all I've ever done." He lives in your community, he shops in your grocery store, he drives beside you on the highway. What you don't know is that he has an elaborate cage built into a secret basement under his garage, and the food he's shopping for is to feed a young woman he's holding there against her willone in a string of many, unaware of the fate that awaits her. This is how it's been for a long time. It's normaland it works. Perfectly. Then he meets the checkout girl from the 24-hour grocery, and she changes everything. One small problemhe still has someone trapped in his garage. Discovering his humanity couldn't have come at a worse time.

Over the last two decades, stalking has received increasingly widespread attention. The establishment of anti-stalking legislation has helped to spur interest in stalking research and the forensic assessment of stalkers. Popular representations of stalking have made the public more aware of this phenomenon. It has long been the responsibility of mental health professionals to provide assessments of and treatment for stalkers and their victims, and as criminal cases involving defendants charged with stalking become more common, it is now also the responsibility of legal professionals to be knowledgeable about psychiatric aspects of stalking behavior and the risks that so often must be minimized through legal action or a combination of clinical and legal interventions. This volume provides a thorough overview of current scientific and clinical research about stalking, along with practical guidance and original commentary from the Psychiatry and the Law Committee of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, an organization recognized for its contributions to mental health literature. In addition to covering the most widely discussed scientific topics related to stalking, including classification of stalking behaviors, risk assessment and risk management of stalkers, and the stalking experience from the perspective of victims, this book examines celebrity and special target stalking, cyberstalking, forensic assessment, and juvenile and adolescent stalking. Stalking: Psychiatric Perspectives and Practical Approaches provides a novel and comprehensive contribution to a field in need of an up-to-date text, written from the vantage point of forensic psychiatrists who encounter stalkers and their victims in their distinct roles as treatment providers and forensic evaluators. The prism of stalking and the risks involved continue to fascinate and frighten. In pursuit of rounded coverage, the authors have incorporated findings from numerous studies and analyzed these findings from several theoretical perspectives. Every chapter has been written from the vantage point of a committee of nationally recognized forensic psychiatrists who offer their perspectives on this fascinating but complex topic. Mental health professionals, members of the judiciary, law enforcement professionals, media personnel, and the public will no doubt find this text to be an informative and useful resource.

The recent increased focus on high profile stalking cases has ledto the raising of public awareness and professional concern,however, only recently has there been substantial scientificresearch into the area. Stalking and Psychosexual Obsession represents a showcase ofcontemporary research and theory never before assembled in onebook. The contributions which are drawn from the diverse spheres ofpsychology, psychiatry, the police and the law provide acomprehensive picture of what is currently known aboutstalking. Each of the chapters not only takes stock of existing research, butprovides ground-breaking new insights. Among the topics covered arevictimology, violence risk assessment and case management issuesand a new stalker classificatory system is presented which offersadvice on how to identify different types of stalkers withdifferent intervention strategies being suggested for eachcase. * A comprehensive, global showcase of contemporary thought, ideas,research and practice * An international team of expert contributors from diversebackgrounds, including, psychology, psychiatry, police and the law