Erotomanic Stalkers Essay

and whether or not actual threatening actions were enacted (e.g., Cass, 2011; Dennison & Thomson, 2005; Kinkade, Burns, & Fuentes, 2005; Scott & Sheridan, 2011).
Types of Stalkers Erotomanic victims are usually men. This is the opposite of the general population of stalkers and victims. Erotomanic stalkers may continue to contact their victim for up to nineteen months and may maintain their obsession for up to 125 months. These stalkers are most likely to initiate contact by writing letters, making telephone calls, and appearing at their victim's home, although these visits do not necessarily involve face-to-face contact. The erotomanic stalker is the least likely to become violent because this type of stalker rarely initiates face-to-face
Scenario research generally indicates that strangers who engaged in unwanted pursuit or harassment behavior were more likely to be labeled stalkers, compared to prior romantic intimates (Kinkade et al., 2005; Scott, Lloyd, & Gavin, 2010; Sheridan & Lyndon,2012). Other scenario research indicates that behaviors constituting illegal stalking were often not recognized as such because they did not seem to fit with people’s stereotypes of stalking (Ngo, 2012). For example, only 30% of college students recognized a relatively clear case of cyber stalking as such (Alexy, Burgess, Baker, & Smoyak, 2005). In the U.S., when justice center and victim services professionals were presented with two stalking scenarios, only 25–52% recommended calling the police (Logan, Walker, Stewart, & Allen, 2006). In a large-scale survey, Tjaden, Thoennes, and Allison (2000) found that the majority (60%) of women who self-identified as stalking victims did not meet the legal definition for stalking for lack of meeting the typical legal “fear requirement”(p. 13). If even victims of stalking lack accurate conceptions of the crime, it raises the question of how existing conceptions of the crime may be socially constructed by the