Women's Experience of Violence During Stalking by Former Romantic Partners: Factors Predictive of Stalking Violence

• NCJ Number: 208162
• Journal: Violence Against Women Volume: 11 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2005 Pages: 89-114
• Author(s): Karl A. Roberts
• Date Published: January 2005
• Length: 26 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study of female experiences of physical violence during stalking by a former romantic partner aimed to identify factors that predicted the violence.

Abstract

A total of 220 female college undergraduates who identified themselves as victims of stalking following the termination of a romantic relationship completed a short questionnaire. The definition of "stalking" used in this study was that developed by Mullen et al. (1997). It is "a constellation of behaviors in which one individual inflicts on another repeated unwanted intrusions and communications." In elaborating upon this definition, they required that for behavior to be classified as stalking, it must have involved at least 10 separate intrusions and/or communications and must have continued for a period of at least 4 weeks. Stalking behaviors might include loitering near a subject, maintaining surveillance, making approaches, and communicating by various means. In the current study, "violence" in the course of stalking was defined as "any physical attack on the victim by the stalker that resulted in physical injury to the victim or that was interpreted by the victim as being intended to result in physical injury." Information was obtained from the women on partner demographics, participant demographics, relationship experiences, and experiences following the termination of the relationship. Although the majority of participants experienced threats of violence while they were being stalked (62.7 percent), only 35.9 percent actually were physically attacked. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the strength of relationship between predictor variables and stalking violence. Significant predictors of stalking violence were direct threats of violence, drug use by the stalker, and jealousy. These factors should be the focus of assessments for the risk of violence from stalkers. 4 tables, 62 references, and appended table of bivariate correlations between predictor variables