ABSTRACT
In the UK stalking refers to repeated and unwanted behaviour creates alarm or distress in a victim, while in the USA it is similarly defined as ‘a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear’ (Catalano, 2012: 1). Self-identifying victims of stalking are considered to be harassed — in other words, they feel a sense of deep anxiety and are put in fear of violence. Stalking has become a more widely acknowledged form of deviance that generates fear and distress but is frequently unreported to the police or other agencies. Around 20 per cent of women and 10 per cent of men have been stalked on at least one occasion since the age of 16 (between 8 per cent of women and 6 per cent of men in the past year, around 1.2 million women and 900,000 men) (Walby and Allen, 2004), though this conceals the fact that many women in particular are victimised many times by current or former partners. Like domestic violence, stalking is another undercurrent of social violence that remains partly concealed — the regular transition of stalking into physical violence makes it considerable cause for concern, though many victims do not report it to the police, either thinking it might be seen as trivial or fearing an escalation of such behaviour.
