We all have the mental image of the deranged, straggly-haired stalker following a woman around, sitting outside their home trying to get a look in and causing general distress all of the time. Obviously, this type of stalking is very bad and would be extremely worrying for any victim of it. But one of the problems with it is that it is an egregious example of the extremes of stalking. In fact there are many different types of stalking – usually done by an ex-partner or former lover who has become obsessed. The fact that we have the mental idea of stalking be a certain prescribed way, as mentioned earlier, it can lead some people to not realise that this is exactly what they are victims of.
This can be a big problem because there is absolutely no doubt that stalking is a very bad thing. Firstly, it is clearly a very distressing thing to happen to victim. Try to imagine how it would feel to have someone following you around and harassing you wherever you go. Clearly we can see the potential for this to be something that is very upsetting and frightening for anyone who might have to experience it. But we can also see that the fact that the stalker is doing this, shows that they have a serious mental issue that needs to be cleared up before they do something that is much worse.
You would be hard pressed to find anyone who would suggest that stalking is a good thing, but perhaps there would be some people who would deny that this kind of thing would do lasting damage to the victim. If such people do exist, it is pleasing to learn that there has been some research into the subject and it has confirmed that stalking is a highly distressing and worrying thing to happen to someone.
According to this new research, women who have been the victims of stalking are up to three times more likely to experience psychological distress than women who have not been through this sort of thing. The researchers, who are from Washington and Lee University have argued that policy makers need to pay attention to this research and put more money into bringing down the number of incidents of this sort of crime, and also offer more support to victims after the crime has occurred.
“I think the major implication of our findings is that while not everyone takes stalking seriously because in most cases nothing physical happened, the detrimental impact is clear,” said Timothy Diette, who is the assistant professor of economics at Washington and Lee University “This study helps raise awareness that in many cases it’s a really scarring event that causes real-life psychological outcomes for victims’ mental health and their ability to function in society”.
The researchers found that it was older victims who were more likely than younger victims to feel the most distressed by being stalked. Women between the ages of 18 and 22, who were the victims of stalking but not sexual assault or rape, were found to be 113 per cent more likely to feel psychological distress than their peers. However, women between the ages of 23 and 29 were found to be 265 per cent more likely to experience mental problems from the crime.
Clearly regardless of the age, the focus needs to be on reducing the occurrences of this sort of crime and also finding better ways to help people who have been the victims of stalking to see if we can end this kind of distress altogether.
