January is National Stalking Awareness Month; learn about this common crime to help others
Submitted by Carson Now Reader on Sun, 01/14/2024 - 6:00am
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Repeats every week until Wed Jan 31 2024 .
January 1, 2024 (All day)
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January 8, 2024 (All day)
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January 15, 2024 (All day)
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January 22, 2024 (All day)
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January 29, 2024 (All day) Having worked on a crisis hotline years ago and have always wanted to highlight that stalking crime has many hidden hurts and harms, my intent is to raise awareness.
I spent almost 35 years of federal service, including 15 in Nevada in public affairs, providing accurate facts and stories about recreational opportunities and natural resources important to our citizens.
While this topic seems to pale in comparison to the Middle East, bringing awareness to any unjust violence is the first step to helping others or even yourself.
Nevada ranks third (44%) nationally in domestic violence, including stalking, just behind KY at 45% and OK at 49% (National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, NCADV.org).
These numbers represent people with lives and loved ones who are deeply rooted in your community.
Experts refer to stalking as “slow-motion homicide,” because it’s closely connected with lethal violence (Slate 04/21/23 article on Supreme Court Justice John Roberts); 76% of murdered women were first stalked by an intimate partner (IP, NCADV, 01/31/17 blog).
Whatever the setting, the reality of these stats are startling (NCADV numbers except middle stat as noted):
- 19.1 million women and 6.4 million men have been stalked in their lifetimes,
- 18-24 year olds are the most stalked, but over 1 million 50-plus year olds are stalked annually (stalkingawareness.com), and
- IP violence victims lose a total of 8 million paid-work days (32,000 full-time jobs) at a cost of $5.8 to $12.6 billion annually.
It is not about sending “harmless” flowers or love letters.
Examples include: following the victim in a car/store, excessive texts/emails, stolen mail, damaged cars/property, cyberstalking, and even sneaking into victims’ homes, letting them know they’ve been there (CDC).
Stalkers desire victim contact and control; are jealous or angry, and have a real or imagined relationship with the victim.
Victims know their stalkers (42%), are acquaintances (40%), and the rest are strangers (CDC, A Smith, S.G., Basile, K.C., & Kresnow, M. (2022). The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS): 2016/2017 Report on Stalking, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control).
Most victims are trying to end a relationship with an IP, often after abuse, or divorcing.
Only a dismal 7.7% of stalkers are convicted and sentenced; most victims do not report it for fear of not being taken seriously (01/09/09, Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, Stalking Victimization in the U.S.).
Being stalked, witnessed it, or asked to stalk someone? File a police report. If it isn’t written down (date, time, and place), in the eyes of the law, it didn’t happen.
Learn more at www.justice.gov or call the 24-hour Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, text “START” to 88788, or TTY at 1-800-787-3224.
