ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out the characteristics of the phenomenon of stalking, and illustrates how research findings concerning risk have been incorporated into specialist approaches to risk assessment and management. Stalking and harassment are not discrete entities, but patterns of behaviour in which individuals engage for different reasons and with different objectives. Cyberstalking, which comprises online or digital stalking, is a form of harassment in which electronic means are used to target the victim, such as e-mail, social media, chatrooms and blogs. The term stalking was initially popularised in the 1980s to describe the intrusive activities of members of the public towards Hollywood celebrities. The prevalence of stalking varies according to the definition used, the methodology employed and the population or sub-population sampled. The Rejected engage in stalking after the breakdown of an intimate relationship that was usually, but not always, sexually intimate in nature: the goal is one of reconciliation or retribution, or fluctuating mixtures of both.
