NEW YORK, Jan. 13, 2009
1 Out Of 100 Americans Is Being Stalked
Survey Reveals 3.4 Million Have Identified Themselves As Victims, Many For 5 Or More Years
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According to the survey, about half of stalking victims experienced at least one unwanted contact per week, and 11 percent had been stalked for five years or longer. (AP)
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Interactive How To Avoid A Stalker Expert advice on handling a stalker, laws by state, and stars who have been targets.
Day was gunned down in the parking lot of the Plantation, Fla. police station.
"He hunted her down like a dog and he killed her," said Edward Day, Olidia Kerr Day's son. "She never had a chance."
While day's story is extreme, stalking is much more common than previous research had shown, reports CBS news correspondent Sandra Hughes.
An estimated 3.4 million Americans identified themselves as victims of stalking during a one-year span, according to federal crime experts who on Tuesday released the largest-ever survey of the aggravating and often terrifying phenomenon.
About half of the victims experienced at least one unwanted contact per week from a stalker, and 11 percent had been stalked for five or more years, according to the report by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics. It covered a 12-month period in 2005-06.
The study was described as a groundbreaking effort to analyze the scope and varying forms of stalking, which had not been featured in previous versions of the National Crime Victimization Survey.
The researchers defined stalking as a course of conduct, directed at a specific person on at least two separate occasions, that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear. The most commonly reported types of stalking were unwanted phone calls (66 percent), unsolicited letters or e-mail (31 percent), or having rumors spread about the victim (36 percent).
More than one-third of the victims reported being followed or spied upon; some said they were tracked by electronic monitoring, listening devices or video cameras.
On The Early Show Wednesday, Michelle Archer, a director at Safe Horizon in New York and a stalking survivor, shared tips on preventing stalking, with co-anchor Julie Chen:
"The prevalence of cell phones and e-mails and GPS devices - this doesn't create more stalkers than used to exist, but it gives the stalker another tool in their toolkit" Cindy Dyer, director of the Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women, told Hughes.
But it's a toolkit that police and prosecutors can use, too, and some say that electronic record have been crucial to their successful prosecutions.
Nearly 75 percent of victims knew their stalker in some capacity - most commonly a former spouse or ex-boyfriend/girlfriend.
Women were far more likely than men to be stalking victims, and people who were divorced or separated were more vulnerable than other marital categories. People aged 18-24 were more likely to be stalked than older people.
Victims reported suffering a range of emotions because of the stalking. Their most common fears included not knowing what would happen next (46 percent) and fearing the stalking would continue indefinitely (29 percent). Nine percent of the victims said their worst fear was death.
"All your freedom is taken away. All of a sudden going for a run or coming home by yourself - all those things began to be panic," one stalking victim, who was afraid to be identified, told Hughes
According to the report, about 130,000 victims said they had been fired or asked to leave their job because of problems arising from the stalking. About one in eight of all employed victims lost time from work, either for fear for their safety or to pursue activities such as seeking a restraining order or testifying in court.
Fast Fact
Mary Lou Leary, a former federal prosecutor who is executive director of the National Center for Victims of Crime, said she was struck by the persistence of some of the stalking behavior depicted in the report.
According to the report, about 130,000 victims said they had been fired or asked to leave their job because of problems arising from the stalking.
"When you consider the impact that stalking has on a victim's life, five weeks is forever - five years is incredible," she said. "They often have to give up their current life, leave their jobs, their homes, establish a whole new identity."
Leary credited law enforcement authorities with taking stalking serious, but she said more needs to be done to strengthen anti-stalking laws and to expand the resources to combat it.
The federal government and all 50 states have enacted laws making stalking a crime, but the laws and definitions of stalking vary widely.
The survey's authors tracked a range of stalking behaviors, including waiting for the victim at a certain location, sending unwanted messages or leaving an unwanted present.
"While individually these acts may not be criminal, collectively and repetitively these behaviors may cause a victim to fear for his or her safety or the safety of a family member," the report said.
About 40 percent of the victims reported the stalking to the police, and about one-fifth filed charges.
The largest previous study of stalking, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2005, estimated that 7 million women and 2 million men in the U.S. had been stalked at some time during their life. It found that violence was committed against the stalking victims in at least 25 percent of the cases.
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© MMIX, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 80 CommentsYea, right, just wait! Unless we address American Terrorism... YOU WILL BE THE NEXT ONE WRITING A COMMENT!
WHEN I WOULD CHANGE MY HAIR-COLOR SHE WOULD CHANGE HERS TO THE SAME COLOR AND SO WOULD THE OTHER WOMEN IN THAT GROUP. I LEARNED THAT WHEN THEY CAME IN MY HOME AND WOULD FIND OUT THE BRAND NAME AND THE COLOR THAT I WAS USING THEY WOULD USE IT TO, SO I BEGIN LEAVING A DIFFERENT COLOR OUT IN MY HOME FOR WHEN THEY BROKE IN AND DESTROYING THE COLOR BOTTLE THAT I NORMALLY USE.TODAY THIS WOMEN AND HER CHILDREN AND PEOPLE WITH HER FROM THIS GROUP HAVE ALL CHANGED THEIR NAMES AND EVEN OPERATED ON THEIR FACES AND NOSES AND CHEEKS AND HAVE DONE A COMPLETE OVERHAUL TO THEIR LOOKS.THEY HAVE DONE SOMETHINGS TO OTHERS AND SINCE THIS WEALTHY MAN IS PAYING MONEY TO HER THEY HAVE MEANS TO DO THINGS AND YOU AND WORLD WOULD SURPRISED AS TO WHO THEY ARE TODAY, THEY ARE FAIRLY WELL KNOWNED NOW AND ARRIVED THERE THROUGH LIES AND STORIES , STALKING AND A SORT OF A BLACKMAIL TO THIS FAMOUS PERSON WHO GIVES HER MONEY THROUGH A PRIVATE CHARITY FUND SHE OPENED
I never asked to be stalked and yet--it''s me and my life that must change...and it sucks.
Posted by zoe-2009
I know it can lead to justifiable homicide. I don''t have to worry about being stalked; I shoot back first.
Stalker is a horrible label to put on someone .especially when all you''re doing is not being accountable yourself..Every one trying to reach you.. does not mean you harm they need closure and humane treatment. This label is used to often when people just don''t handel things correctly,,translated ''JUST LEAVE ME ALONE..That is not fair
This man was not a stalker ..she was a User... and he did not realize it ..... all she had to do was give him back his giftS.. AND HE WOULD HAVE GLADLY GONE HIS WAY,,,,iN A LOT OF CASE PEOPLE ONLY HAVE TO BLOCK THEIR eMAILS IF THEY ARE TIRED OF HEARING FROM SOMEONE.
JUST BECAUSE A PERSON A HAS KNOWLEDGE OF YOUR ACTIVITIES ,DOES NOT MEAN THAT THEY ARE STALKING YOU ..THE INTERNET IS FULL OF SIMPLE INFOMATION.
TO CALL A PERSON WHO IS SIMPLY TRYING TO GET AN UNDERSTANDING A STALKER!!
ACTIONS, SOMEONE WANTS US SO BADLY ,AND THAT IS NOT ALWAYS THE CASE..
One of the GREAT THINGS ABOUT BEING IN POSITION OFCHANGE THINGS FOR THE LEADERSHIP IS THE ABILITY TO BETTER,,,, OR JUST TALK THE TALK............
I''m sure some people have been legitimately hurt by love and became off balance ThinK before you ruin someones life..there are two sides to every story,
Actually the number of victims are far greater than 1 in every 100. It''''s more like 25 in every 100 people in America and it is steady getting worse. This practice skyrocketed in the last 8-20 years. It does not matter who is doing the stalking, it is wrong, whether it is bill collectors, corporation henchmen, IRS, ex-spouse or secret admirer, this is still criminal behavior and there is no excuse for it.
This activity takes and destroy thousands of lives each year. There is another form of it called gang-stalking, which is the most deadly form of stalking. It is where a group of people unknown to the victim, these groups stalks one victim and terrorize them to death and this is no laughing matter! This can go on for as long as 20 years and where the victim moves the stalkers follows and scandalizes their name. One of their most common practices are putting out sexual illicit material about the victim hoping to invoke another attacker. Which make this very deadly for women. Because it lay the groundwork for her to become a rape victim which is their intention.
Those who stalks are the first to say it does not happen.
Spot on, thanks. "Gang stalking" also leads to murder.
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Posted by oddellmar at 07:08 AM : Jan 14, 2009
Oh, shut up.
Posted by dannyc1975 at 08:09 PM : Jan 13, 2009
What a smartass comment.
Just because your are paranoid, it does not mean we are not out to get you. There is such a thing as justifiable paranoia.
I also like the part where "having rumors spread about the victim" is counted as stalking. Duh, this is GOSSIP, not stalking. I guess they had to do something to get it up to 1%.
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