Running head: Stalking and its Effects

Stalking and Its Effects

Kyle Caprai
College of Southern Idaho

Abstract

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Stalking is a Phenomenon that has been going on forever. The idea that someone follows and
harasses someone repeatedly is something that is both confusing and interesting. This paper will
cover multiple areas of stalking and how it ties in with interpersonal communication. The first
thing that will be looked at is what stalking is both in a social and legal way and how its become
something that is easily done. The Second point is a comprehensive explanation of the types of
stalkers and the motives behind it. Third will be the commonality of the stalking phenomenon
and how that ties into the lives of the everyday American. Fourth is the motives behind the
stalkers and why they do what they do which meshes with the different types of stalkers. Fifth
describes the impact on the victim that stalking can have and what that implies. And finally what
type of help is available for stalking victims.

What is Stalking?

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We live in an age where we have access to other peoples information in a way we never
have. Today we have various ways of utilizing technology to take information that would have
never been otherwise available. It is much simpler to find where people live, work or hang out
through social media websites like Facebook and other places on the internet like Spokeo or even
Google. As an experiment I tried googling myself and was quickly able to determine what high
school I went too and what college I currently attend. And with just a little bit deeper searching I
would most certainly be able to find out where to find myself. Because finding people is so easy
it isnt surprising that there is an abundance of stalking these days. Therefore, because its so
easy to find information about people there must be a line drawn between what is and what isnt
considered stalking. Its true that many of us are guilty of the nefarious act of Facebook
stalking. But in general very few of us have actually gone out and relentlessly followed
someone. The line where it goes from slightly creepy to the full blown illegal act of stalking is a
pretty clear line. According to the law section in the website The Free Dictionary stalking is
legally defined as the repeated following or harassing of another person. Although its creepy,
it isnt illegal to follow someone on Facebook or send those flowers or a love letter. It is illegal
however, to send threats and do anything that according to the Idaho law, Engages in a course of
conduct that seriously alarms, annoys or harasses the victim and is such as would cause a
reasonable person substantial emotional distress (Code 18-7906).
This is a fairly new law that was implemented in 1990 because of different murders and
the realization that there are many victims who could not stop the stalkers because no law was
being broken. There was one woman who was being stalked by a man; this man at first talked of
love and getting married but after a while of no reciprocation he started acting resentful and
violent toward this woman. It all caused her great distress but the police could do nothing about

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it because the man was not breaking any laws (U.S Department of Justice, 1996 pg. 2, 7). These
laws were implemented to protect the wellbeing of American citizens and thats exactly what
stalking laws in states do. Usually stalking laws consist of a misdemeanor offence then after that
a felony for people who persist. Idaho also has a misdemeanor offence and a felony offence in
regards to stalking. Even though there are jokes and humor around stalking in the media, it is
actually a very serious crime because of the negative impact on victims. To know more about
stalking it is important to know more about the stalkers themselves. Let us next discuss the
different kinds of stalkers out there.
What kind of stalkers are there?
Because there are many different types of stalking there are also many types of stalkers.
Lets delve into what types of stalkers are stalking out there. There are four types of stalkers
categorized by PhD. Muller in Phycology Today. The first kind of stalker is the intimacy stalker.
This is the man or woman who goes along as usual and by happenstance they see the person of
their dreams, they have fallen in love and they cannot let this chance go by. Perhaps if they can
show how real their love is then maybe, just maybe that dream person will respond positively
and they can live happily ever after. Unfortunately for our stalker, for people to come to like
other people there needs to be a process. There is a life cycle in relationships that involve
beginning, developing and sustaining relationships. For most people when a relationship is not
developed it will not immediately lead to marriage or whatever further along the line relationship
type a stalker may want (Verderber, 2013). This in its self is and error in communication and
needs to either be resolved by the stalker realizing the problem with his communication or via
the legal process in which anti-stalking laws intend. There are not many people who are willing
to just jump into a relationship with just anybody off the street. So what this means for our

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stalker is that he or she likely has a snowballs chance in hell by using their current tactics. But,
our stalker is relentless and refuses to give up and likely has delusions of the victim reciprocating
feelings back to them. Which will inevitably end up in the arrest of our stalker.
A different but very similar type of stalker to this would be the social incompetent kind of
stalker who like the Intimacy seeker wants a relationship and stalks the victim but unlike the
Intimacy seeker this kind is entirely aware and acknowledges that the victim is not reciprocating.
But they lack the understanding of what they are doing is harmful. This kind of person may have
a personality disorder that keeps them from understanding that what they are doing is
problematic or perhaps even prevents them from caring about these problems.
The third kind is the resentful stalker. Imagine if you will a man whose wife divorced him
and took his house and a lot of his things. This man feels that that wrong was done against him
so to get the justice that he deserves he decides to send hate letters to his wife. His ex-wife tries
to change her address to get away but no matter what she does his letters keep coming.
Eventually she tries to press charges because she has had enough and is beginning to fear that she
may be in danger she decides to take him to court because of his insistent actions. This type of
stalking correlates with the bad communication habits defined by Inter-Act as aggressive
communication. Instead of using an assertive way to show how they feel these stalkers will use
an aggressive form of communication to let the victim know what they feel which is an abusive
form of communication (Verderber 2013, p. 339-340). Just as well, the fact that they are stalking
the other person shows that they do not care about the other persons personal space which digs
the bad communication hole even deeper.
The fourth and potentially most dangerous kind of stalker is the predatory stalker. This is
a stalker who is seeking control of another persons life. This person wants to inspire fear and use

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intimidation to bend the victim to their will. An example of this would be if someone stalks
someone so they get the chance to sexually assault their victims. The stalking is just preparation
for the final act (2013).
How common is stalking
With all these kinds of stalkers running about there is one question that comes to mind.
How often does stalking actually happen? On one hand it isnt often that we hear about instances
of stalking. On the other who is actually willing to talk about such things? That being said what
does this mean for us? Should we worry about stalkers coming into our lives? Stalking is more
common then we realize. An estimated 6.6 million people are stalked a year (Stalking fact sheet
2012). Thats almost six times the population of Salt Lake City. We live in an increasingly
voyeuristic society. Not only is voyeurism becoming easier it is also becoming more mainstream
as we see in the media who send out paparazzis to gather the latest information on celebrities.
Not only that but we are able to view peoples lives on television with all these new reality
television shows. Because it is a time where we always have cameras that are always watching
shows where people are being watched and on top of that the celebrities are being constantly
spied on and now even the NSA. Spying is clearly something everyone does so why should
stalking be bad? However stalking is bad because it has the potential to be very harmful, but
should we live our lives in fear of being stalked by that one guy or girl down the street? The
answer is a definitive no. There is no sense in changing a lifestyle or becoming anti-social or
doing anything drastic out of fear of being stalked. Even though many people are stalked only 6
million people are and there are approximately 300 million in America. Seen on a broader scale
this is only a fraction of the population. Thus, there is really no need to make any changes unless
an instance actually occurs. On the other hand many celebrities are stalked. whats interesting

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about that is because they are celebrities there are many ways that the stalker may become
engaged in stalking a celebrity. They may enjoy the works of that celebrity. Or another thing that
could happen is that. That person could watch that celebrities show or movies and come to know
this person based on the media they have produced. They know this person and now want to
actually get to know them. But unfortunately they attempt to do this using poor communication
skills and probable abuse to go along with it. This brings me to my next point it describes the
motives behind the stalkers and ties in with the previously mentioned different types of stalkers.
Why do people stalk?
If stalking is a fairly common thing and something that is illegal. We want to know why
stalkers do what they do. To answer this we must look into statistics and evaluate what that
entails. According to a researcher from the National Institute of Justice, 36.6% considered
stalker motivations as retaliation, anger or spite, 32.9% replied control, and 23.4% said mental
illness or emotional instability.(As cited by Muller PhD. 2013). What is intriguing is that the
least amount of people who do it are mentally ill. This means that people who seem mentally
stable could be potential stalkers. This also means that the people who would generally be
expected to stalk dont and the same goes for the opposite. Whats more is that most people do it
out of anger or retaliation. This suggests that people who are more likely to be angry or break
down are the ones who are the biggest risk factor. It is known that grudges can be very harmful
to both people involved but this becomes an even more serious issue when stalking is involved
because not only is there a lasting resentment there is also unhealthy and abusive communication
being demonstrated by at least one party and this poor communication can degrade into physical
abuse as well. Anger is one of the stronger emotions besides the fluttery feeling of love or

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rather extreme attraction. What can be deduced by this is that having strong emotions can
interrupt peoples ability to think clearly.
When a stalkers motive behind stalking someone is control it is quite possibly the scariest
motive. The Idea that someone is relentlessly harassing someone, not because they are angry
about something but because they want to feel in control of someones life. This is the most
despicable reason for stalking because it is the same reason that is used by predatory stalkers
which are the most vile of the stalkers. By examining the statistics we can come to the
conclusion that stalking is in general caused by great emotion that clouds the ability to think
logically and can end in bad consequences. In the end stalking is a form of bad communication
between at least one of the persons involved. The stalker is demonstrating bad communication by
not respecting the rights of the other person and aggressively tries to get the other person to
reciprocate. Unfortunately instead of getting what the stalker wants; it always ends in disaster.
What affect does stalking have on people?
So we know what stalking is and why it occurs. So what kind of psychological affect does
stalking have on people? What kind of harm can come from being followed and sent letters from
someone? In a survey done by () of 100 stalking victims there were many negative effects on
peoples health. Threats were received by 58 and 34 were physically or sexually assaulted.
Violence is a major factor in stalking which correlates with the fact that most of stalking is based
off of violent intent. The problem with this is that many people are hurt by something that would
otherwise be seriously annoying rather than seriously harmful. Of the people in the study all but
six people in the study made major changes in their lives. It is really bad when information has
to be changed to avoid the stalking. 53% changed their employment. This is also a major
problem because it can be difficult to find a new job. 39% changed homes, another thing that is

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not easy to do. The less major adverse effects include nightmares and intrusive memories. Or
even PTSD. Which to be honest is still very major or just as major as the previously mentioned
effects. It is clear that abuse is a large factor when it comes to stalking, aggression and violence
upscale something that could simply be an annoyance to something that is actual a serious threat
to security.
Stalking Help
Because stalking has such profound effects on our mental health it is not entirely
uncommon. It is important to know what our options are available to us if stalking ever occurs to
us. That being said there are many resources available to us if we are ever put in a position where
we have to deal with stalkers. Some of these resources include hotlines others provide
information on what and what not to do. Two of these hotlines are 866.689.help and the unlawful
call center if someone is harassing people over the phone which is 1 (800) 518-5507. These
numbers can be reached any time by the public. One online resource called Safe Horizon is filled
with information on what should be done if someone is stalked. Two examples of these are that
people should never go home if they think they are being followed. It also recommends that the
person being stalked keep any packages or voicemail sent. These are imperative in helping in a
case of a lawsuit is decided to be pursued. Even though these numbers and resources have good
examples of what to if a person is in a situation where they are being stalked. The best solution
for someone to take if they are in danger is to always call 911.
Conclusion
When we look at stalking and how it ties in with communication we can see that stalking
is a major problem not only for the person being stalked but also for the stalker. And not just
because its illegal but also because it demonstrates poor communication skills. Also is creepy.

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We know what makes stalking up. The types of stalkers have been made clearer. We know how
common it has become and why stalkers so what they do. We understand the poor
communication skills behind it and the negative impact it has on the victims. We also have
looked into the different organizations that offer help to those who need help dealing with
stalkers. It is clear that stalking is a problem, but it is a problem that cannot really be resolved
very readily. The laws in use are the current best deterrent for stalking.

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