ABSTRACT
The topic has often been left to psychologists to theorize on the causes of stalking behavior, while the role criminologists play involves inter viewing prisoners or examining laws. Stalking is a difficult crime to study because it has wide variability; offenses range from unwanted phone calls, to following a person, to actual physical attacks on the victim. Furthermore, it is difficult to determine exactly when and how an incident can escalate from its fledgling stages. While these problems make studying the phe nomenon of stalking difficult, they should not take away from the impor tance of researching, understanding, and ultimately preventing the crime.
