Persistent Harassment: Targets and Perpetrators Among Young Adults |
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Authors: | Helena Grangeia Marlene Matos |
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Affiliation: | 1. Research Unit in Criminology and Behavioural Sciences, University Institute of Maia, Maia, Portugal;2. Human Rights Center for Interdisciplinary Research, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal;3. School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal |
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Abstract: | In Portugal, stalking has recently been recognized as a crime. This study used an online survey to ask 3,367 college students about their experiences of persistent harassment and targets’ and perpetrators’ perceptions of fear and conduct legitimacy. Targets (34.5%) typically mentioned that they had experienced a frightening experience but considered it to have been wrong but not very serious. Perpetrators (8.9%) mostly perceived that their targets had not experienced fear and judged their own conduct to have been normal. Ordinal logistic regressions indicated that intimate partner stalking, targets’ fear, and threatening and violent behaviors predicted less conduct legitimization for both targets and perpetrators. |
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Keywords: | conduct legitimacy perpetrators persistent harassment stalking targets |
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