Stalking,homicide, and catathymic process: a case study

Despite the proliferation of research on various aspects of stalking, there has been relatively little study of stalkers who commit homicide. In this article, a man who stalked and killed a casual acquaintance is reported. He developed an idea to kill her that, at first, seemed ego-alien and unreal but eventually became fixed and was accompanied by a mounting inner pressure to act. The concept of catathymic process--a change in thinking whereby the offender comes to believe that he can resolve his inner conflict by committing an act of extreme violence against someone to whom he feels emotionally bonded--is of particular help in understanding this case, as well as similar cases of stalking that culminate in homicide.     

Stalking by law: damaging victims and rewarding offenders

The introduction of anti-stalking statutes throughout Australia and much of the Western world has brought greater protection for the victims of various forms of harassment and intrusions. However, despite these new provisions, the legal system is failing some victims of stalking. This article examines those areas of the justice system that are particularly susceptible to manipulation by stalkers and the impact of these abuses on stalking victims. It also presents ways in which the problems encountered by stalking victims may be frustrated rather than alleviated by specific aspects of the enforcement of anti-stalking laws and of the functioning of certain courts and tribunals. Approaches that prevent or discourage the perpetuation of harassment and damage to victims of stalking within the legal system are discussed.     

Toward a control theory of white-collar offending

In this study, Hirschi's control theory was conceptually developed and empirically tested as a rationale for white-collar offending. The data were gathered from a sample of 435 executives who were employees of a multinational automobile manufacturer. Results suggest that factors within the corporation such as managerial attachments, work commitment and involvement, and belief in corporate rules significantly affect individual rates of executive self-reported offending. In particular, those executives who possessed the strongest bond to their manager, their co-workers, and the corporation itself were least likely to report having engaged in a white-collar crime. Theoretical implications of these findings and how they relate to extant theories of white-collar criminality are discussed.Portions of this paper were presented at the 39th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Montreal, November 16, 1987.     

Interpersonal Relationships and Stalking: Identifying When to Intervene

One of the issues arising out of the introduction of stalking legislation is how to distinguish between the kinds of courting behaviours, reconciliations, termination of relationships and other social interactions that are within the ‘normal range’ and those behaviours that are perceived by the wider community as stalking. This study examined the impact of intent, persistence, perspective and gender on perceptions of behaviours following the dissolution of a relationship. Responses of 868 community members indicated that behaviour was only perceived as illegal when explicit evidence of intent was present rather than when it was absent. Ratings for foreseeability of arousing fear were higher when explicit evidence of intent was present rather than absent and when behaviour constituted a repeated rather than single episode. Participants were more likely to determine that the behaviour of the actor would be repeated when the scenario depicted a repeat episode rather than a single episode. Suggested target responses differed according to whether or not the scenario depicted explicit evidence of intent to arouse fear. Results are discussed in relation to previous studies on community perceptions of stalking as well as the capacity of the research to inform interpretations of stalking legislation.     

Measurement bias in self-reports of offending: a systematic review of experiments

Journal of Experimental Criminology - Self-reported offending is one of the primary measurement methods in criminology. In this article, we aimed to systematically review the experimental evidence...     

Coexistence and Independence Between a Mental Disorder and Female Stalking*

Abstract: There are few studies of female stalkers in literature addressing different study populations. There appears to be a high incidence of mental disease among female stalkers, having an important role in inducing the harassment. We present a woman affected by a bipolar disorder who had a long affair with her victim, broken off in 2007. Stalking began in January 2009 and continued for 6 months, during which time she was not taking drugs and was in a decompensated clinical phase. In July 2009, she was denounced for harassment; the authorities demanded a psychiatric examination. The woman then resumed taking the medication regularly. In December 2009, although she was in complete remission, she began stalking once more. This case shows that even when there seems to be an evident relation between psychopathology and crime, it is always necessary to evaluate to what extent the mental disorder is responsible for the criminal behavior.     

Ward and Siegert's Pathways Model of child sexual offending: a cluster analysis evaluation

In the Pathways Model of child sexual offending, Ward and Siegert originally hypothesised the existence of five pathways or subtypes of child molesters, each characterised by a unique configuration of psychological deficits. We administered a battery of 10 psychometric measures to a sample of 97 UK child molesters and then attempted to identify and validate five unique configurations using a k-means cluster analysis. The results suggested that a five-cluster resolution provided the best fit for the data. Three of the extracted clusters showed some resemblances to the pathways originally hypothesised by Ward and Siegert (namely the intimacy deficits, antisocial cognition, and multiple dysfunction pathways). However, two clusters did not fit comfortably with any of the predicted pathways proposed by Ward and Siegert. These two clusters were labelled ‘impulsivity’ and ‘boy predators’ to reflect their psychological vulnerabilities. We describe our findings with reference to future research, treatment implications, and a tentative reworking of the pathways model.     

The internet and offending behaviour: A case study

Abstract

Summary: The COPINE Project at the Department of Applied Psychology, seeks to address children's vulnerability in relation to the Internet and child pornography. As part of the project, offenders convicted of downloading such images have been interviewed. This paper considers existing models of offender behaviour alongside literature relating to Internet use. A single case study is used to illustrate a process-focused model of offending, using interview material to demonstrate how the offender represented and accounted for his behaviour. The offender in question had no history of engaging in sexual behaviour with actual children, but his case illustrated many of the stages described by offenders in their involvement with pornography, including: setting events, engagement, collecting behaviour, and the emergence of relationships.     

Career Dimensions of Stalking Victimization and Perpetration

Prior literature concerning stalking, particularly in the field of criminology, finds wide variation in fundamental trends regarding stalking victimization and perpetration. There seems to be little consensus regarding when and how stalking is manifested. Furthermore, prior research to date has not addressed the etiology of stalking‐related behaviors by applying principles from criminal career research, including participation, frequency, onset, and duration. The present study builds upon prior research by addressing trends in age of onset for stalking victimization and perpetration, the duration of stalking‐related behaviors, and the relationship between those behaviors and other types of crime over the life course using primary data from a sample of young adults. Findings indicate that stalking victimization and perpetration share important career attribute similarities, and that self‐reported history of intimate partner violence and sexual assault are strongly associated with stalking outcomes.     

Dynamic risk and sexual offending: the conundrum of assessment

ABSTRACT

The potential to reduce sexual victimisation, promote community safety, and decrease incarceration costs has resulted in considerable progress in terms of how we understand and predict sexual recidivism. And yet, the past decade has seen a degree of fragmentation emerge as research attention has shifted away from relative risk prediction (with its focus on static risk factors) to the identification of factors capable of reducing risk through intervention (i.e. dynamic risk). Although static and dynamic risk are often treated as orthogonal constructs [Beech, A. R., & Craig, L. A. (2012). The current status of static and dynamic factors in sexual offender risk assessment. Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, 4(4), 169–185. doi:10.1108/17596591211270671], there are arguments to support a claim that the two are in fact functionally related [see Ward, T. (2015). Dynamic risk factors: Scientific kinds or predictive constructs. Psychology, Crime & Law (in 22(01–02), 2–16); Ward, T., & Beech, A. R. (2015). Dynamic risk factors: A theoretical dead-end? Psychology, Crime & Law, 21(2), 100–113. This discussion clearly affects how we assess dynamic risk. This review considered several commonly used methods of assessment and the evidence offered for their predictive accuracy. Of note were differences in the predictive accuracy of single psychometric measures versus composite scores of dynamic risk domains and the conventions used for establishing effect sizes for risk assessment tools.     

Identifying Stalking: The Relevance of Intent in Commonsense Reasoning

One method of distinguishing stalking from law-abiding behavior is to determine whether the accused intended to cause fear or harm to the target. However, this distinction may not capture community concerns regarding intrusive or harassing behavior. The present research examines the effect of intent, persistence, relationship, and consequences on community perceptions of stalking. Responses of 1,080 members of the community to a series of scenarios indicated that the presence of explicit evidence of intent was not the only way stalking behavior was identified. Behavior was also identified as stalking as a greater degree of persistence was depicted. Females more often than males perceived the behavior as stalking and inferred intent to cause fear or harm. Most participants who identified the behavior as stalking also indicated that it should be illegal. These results may assist in guiding ongoing debates over appropriate stalking legislation and strategies to reduce the incidence of stalking, as well as indicating whether education regarding stalking laws is required.     

Sexual offending as a public health problem: A north american perspective

Abstract

This paper argues that we should cease treating sexual offending as a problem best dealt with by psychology, medicine, or law. Sexual offending, like mental illness, alcoholism, or drug addiction, is a public health problem, one that is everyone's business. The paper first considers the traditional levels of prevention in public health: primary, secondary, and tertiary. The argument is made that most of our efforts have been directed to the tertiary level where they are least likely to be effective. Applications of the general public health model to sexual violence are considered. These include epidemiology, risk factor research, program evaluation, and dissemination of information on what works. Various methods for informing and educating the public about sexual violence are proposed. The paper concludes with suggestions on how harm can be minimised through the use of a public health approach.     

Protection Against Pursuit: A Conceptual and Empirical Comparison of Cyberstalking and Stalking Victimization Among a National Sample

Cyberstalking is a relatively understudied area in criminology, with no consensus among scholars as to whether it represents a modified form of stalking or whether it is an entirely new and emerging criminal phenomenon. Using data from the 2006 Supplemental Victimization Survey (SVS) to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), this study compares stalking and cyberstalking victims across several dimensions, including situational features of their experiences and self-protective behaviors. Results indicate that there are significant differences between stalking and cyberstalking victims, including their number of self-protective behaviors adopted, duration of contact with their stalker, financial costs of victimization, and perceived fear at onset. Perceived fear over time, the occurrence of a physical attack, and sex of the victim were all associated with a higher number of self-protective behaviors for cyberstalking victims compared to stalking victims, net of the effect of the control variables. Implications for stalking theory, research, and criminal justice policy are discussed.