[acb-hsp] The Role of Stalking

Mon Jul 25 22:43:23 EDT 2011

The Role of Stalking in Domestic Violence Crime Reports Generated by the Colorado

Springs Police Department

by Patricia Tjaden , Nancy Thoennes

Although stalking research is still in its infancy, several studies have established

a link between stalking and violence in intimate relationships. Meloy (1998) conducted

a profile of known stalkers and found that stalkers who had been sexually intimate

with their victims were most likely to be violent toward their victims. Tjaden and

Thoennes (1998) found that 81 percent of the women in the National Violence Against

Women (NVAW) Survey who were stalked by a current or former husband or cohabiting

partner also were physically assaulted by that partner, while 31 percent were raped

by that partner. Tjaden and Thoennes (1998) also found that ex-husbands who stalked

their partners were significantly more likely than ex-husbands who did not stalk

to have engaged in emotionally abusive (e.g., shouting or swearing) and controlling

behavior (e.g., limiting contact with others, jealousy, possessiveness, denying access

to family income). Moracco and colleagues (1998) found that nearly a quarter (23.4

percent) of femicide victims in North Carolina who were murdered by a current or

former intimate partner had been stalked before the fatal incident. And most recently,

McFarlane and associates (1999) found that 76 percent of partner femicide victims

and 85 percent of attempted partner femicide victims in 10 cities were stalked by

their assailant in the 12 months preceding their victimization. McFarlane and colleagues

(1999) also found a statistically significant association between intimate partner

physical assault and stalking for both femicide and attempted femicide victims. Given

these findings, it is not surprising that several researchers have recommended that

stalking be considered a risk factor for further physical abuse or lethality in cases

involving violence perpetrated against women by intimates (Felder & Victor, 1997;

Jacobson & Gottman, 1998; McFarlane et al., 1999; Schaum & Parrish, 1995; Walker

& Meloy, 1998).

In light of the apparent link between stalking and physical violence in intimate

relationships, the U.S. Department of Justice encourages state and local jurisdictions

to train police officers and other justice system officials about the potential risks

associated with intimate partner stalking and the efficacy of implementing collaborative

efforts to respond more effectively to domestic violence and stalking (Violence Against

Women Grants Office, 1998). However, because antistalking laws have been enacted

only recently (Hunzeker, 1992), there is no systematic information about the prevalence

of stalking allegations in domestic violence crime reports or the use of antistalking

statutes to respond to these allegations. Thus, it is unclear how often domestic

violence crime reports involve stalking and whether suspects in these cases are charged

with stalking. An anecdotal survey of criminal justice practitioners commissioned

by the Office of Justice Programs found that stalkers continue to be charged and

sentenced under harassment, intimidation, or other related laws instead of under

a state's antistalking statute (Violence Against Women Grants Office, 1998). But

empirical data have been lacking on the prevalence of stalking in domestic violence

crime reports or the ways in which justice system officials respond to reports with

stalking allegations.

Empirical information also is limited on the characteristics of stalkers and their

victims, especially in cases of intimate partner stalking. Tjaden and Thoennes (2000)

found that 4.8 percent of the women in the NVAW Survey reported being stalked by

a current or former intimate partner at some time in their lifetime, compared with

0.6 percent of the men. Thus, women are at greater risk of intimate partner violence

than men. Tjaden and Thoennes (1998) also found that women were more likely to report

being stalked by a former rather than a current intimate partner, and that the majority

of stalking victims are between 18 and 29 years of age. However, Tjaden and Thoennes

(2000) found no significant differences in the rates of intimate partner stalking

among women and men of specific racial backgrounds or between women and men of Hispanic/non-Hispanic

origin. Burgess and associates (1997) profiled domestic violence perpetrators by

whether or not they stalked and found that domestic violence stalkers, compared to

nonstalkers, tended to live alone, were less likely to be married, and used more

alcohol. While these studies provide a starting point for understanding risk factors

associated with intimate partner stalking, there is clearly a need for more research

on the correlates and causes of intimate partner violence.

This article presents findings from a study that examined the role of stalking in

domestic violence crime reports in one jurisdiction, Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The study consists of a case file review of domestic violence crime reports that

were initiated by the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) during a nine-month

period. The CSPD serves a metropolitan area which is located 70 miles south of Denver

and consists of a population of about 350,000. According to 1990 Census data, the

ethnic/racial composition of the Colorado Springs Metropolitan Statistical Area (which

encompasses El Paso County) is 86 percent White, 7.2 percent African American, 0.8

percent American Indian, 8.7 percent Hispanic (of any race), 2.5 percent Asian, and

3.5 percent Other (www.coloradosprings. org). Thirty-two percent of the population

is employed by military bases (www.coloradosprings.org) and 60 percent of the population

has a college degree (www.coloradosprings. org).

Colorado Springs is unique compared to other metropolitan settings in that it is

home to the Domestic Violence Enhanced Response Team (OVERT), a nationally recognized,

one-of-a-kind domestic violence prevention program that provides a multi-disciplinary

system response to cases of domestic violence that have a high risk for lethality.

The DVERT primary case management team comprises local law enforcement officials

and detectives, representatives from the District Attorney's Office, and representatives

from The Center for Prevention of Domestic Violence. The goal of DVERT is to provide

seamless, systematic community response to domestic violence through a multidisciplinary

collaboration focusing on pro-arrest policies and procedures, case investigation

and prosecution, and implementation of innovative forms of outreach, advocacy, and

services to victims.

Using data from the study, this article addresses the following questions:

1. How prevalent is stalking in domestic violence crime reports?

2. What are risk factors associated with domestic violence stalking?

3. How often are intimate partner stalkers charged with stalking?

4. Do presenting conditions in domestic violence crime reports with stalking allegations

differ significantly from those in domestic violence crime reports without stalking

allegations?

5. Do law enforcement outcomes in domestic violence crime reports with stalking allegations

differ significantly from those in domestic violence crime reports without stalking

allegations?

To better understand how victim gender impacts these questions, separate analyses

were conducted for female and male victims.

STUDY METHODS1

Sample Generation

The sample consists of misdemeanor and felony crimes, reported to the CSPD during

April-September, 1998, that involved victims and suspects who were current and former

spouses, cohabiting partners, dates, boyfriends, and girlfriends. All types of misdemeanor

and felony domestic violence crime reports are included in the sample, including

those involving allegations of attempted murder, kidnaping, robbery, simple and aggravated

assault, rape, arson, burglary, vandalism, trespassing, disorderly conduct, menacing,

intimidation, harassment, and stalking. The sample includes domestic violence crime

reports with male and female suspects, male and female victims, and samesex and opposite-sex

intimates.

The sample was generated from CSPD Domestic Violence Summons and Complaint (DVSC)

forms. These forms are used by CSPD officers to investigate crime reports of victims

and suspects who are or have been in an intimate relationship and where there is

probable cause to believe a crime was committed. Information from all 1998 DVSC forms

was entered into a computerized database as part of the evaluation process for DVERT.

A subfile of 1,788 reports for which a DVSC was initiated by the CSPD during April-September,

1998, was generated from this database and formed the basis for the study sample.

Three of these reports were subsequently eliminated from the sample because they

were lost or destroyed and could not be reviewed by data collectors. Thus, the sample

for the present study consists of 1,785 DVSC crime reports.

Data Collection

The DVSC case file review was conducted from January to September, 1999. Data collectors

reviewed DVSC forms and entered coded information directly into a computerized data

base. The DVSC forms contained detailed information about the violation, including:

date of the violation; date of the report; victim-suspect relationship; age, race,

sex, and employment status of the victim and suspect; type of violation committed;

specific criminal charges made by the police officer; whether the alleged violations

constituted misdemeanor or felony crimes; whether a suspect was arrested; whether

the victim sustained injuries; whether the victim received medical attention; whether

the suspect used a firearm or other type of weapon; whether items were placed in

evidence; whether the victim and suspect were using drugs and/or alcohol at the time

of the incident; number and ages of children in the household; whether children were

in the home at the time of the incident; and whether there was a no-contact or restraining

order in effect against the suspect at the time of the incident. The DVSC forms also

contained written narratives by both the victim and the investigating officer. These

narratives provided detailed information about the events precipitating the report,

including whether the suspect stalked the victim.

Data Processing and Analysis

Once data collection was completed, the case extraction data were merged into one

comprehensive SPSS data file and subjected to extensive editing. Missing information

was assigned nonresponse codes or corrected from other case record information. The

data were analyzed using SPSS base 7.0 for Windows software. The prevalence of stalking

allegations was estimated using information extracted from the victim and police

narratives. For purposes of the study, a domestic violence crime report was classified

as having stalking allegations if the victim and/or police narrative specifically

stated that the victim was stalked by the suspect, or if the victim and/or police

narrative mentioned that the suspect engaged in stalking-like behaviors. Stalking-like

behaviors included repeated following, face-toface confrontations, or unwanted communications

by phone, page, letter, fax, e-mail, or a combination thereof, with repeated meaning

on two or more occasions.

The definition of stalking used in the study is similar to the definition of stalking

used in the model antistalking code for states developed by the National Criminal

Justice Association for the National Institute of Justice. The model antistalking

code defines stalking as a course of conduct directed at a specific person that involves

repeated visual or physical proximity, nonconsensual communication, or oral, written,

or implied threats, or a combination thereof, that would cause a reasonable person

to fear bodily injury or death, with repeated meaning on two or more occasions (National

Criminal Justice Association, 1993). The model antistalking code does not require

stalkers to make a credible threat of violence against victims, but it does require

victims to feel a high level of fear (i.e., fear of bodily injury or death). The

definition of stalking used in the present study does not require suspects to overtly

threaten the victim. Nor does it require victims to expressly state that they feared

bodily injury or harm at the hands of the suspect. It was assumed that persons who

were identified as victims in a domestic violence crime report had experienced fear

as a result of behaviors perpetrated against them by the suspect. It should be noted

that the definition of stalking used in the present study was not based on the Colorado

antistalking statute because the statute was in a state of legal flux at the time

of the study. The Colorado antistalking statute faced three constitutional challenges

during 1998. Moreover, the statute was amended in July 1998.

To identify risk factors associated with intimate partner stalking, a series of bivariate

analyses were conducted to determine whether the prevalence of stalking allegations

in CSPD domestic violence crime reports varied significantly by select victim and

suspect characteristics. The specific characteristics included in the analyses were:

victim gender (male vs. female); victim age ( < 30 vs. 30+); victim race (White vs.

non-White); victim employment status (employed vs. unemployed); suspect gender (male

vs. female); suspect age ( < 30 vs. 30+); suspect race (White vs. non-White); suspect

employment status (employed vs. unemployed); and victimsuspect relationship (married

vs. separated or divorced vs. living together vs. dating but not living together

vs. former dates or cohabitants). These characteristics were selected for analysis

because they represented attributes of the victim and suspect that preceded the incident

leading to the crime report and could therefore be considered predictors of stalking.

In addition, a logistic regression was conducted in which several independent variables

representing characteristics of the victim and suspect were regressed against the

dependent variable, the crime report contained allegations that the suspect stalked

the victim. The goals of the logistic regression were to provide a measure of the

relative importance of these variables and to determine which independent variables

increased the odds that a domestic violence victim reported being stalked by his

or her partner. Logistic regression was used because of the dichotomous and unevenly

distributed nature of the dependent variable (Hutcheson & Sofroniou, 1999). In order

to check for multicollinearity among the independent variables, each variable's tolerance

level was calculated using linear regression. Variables with a tolerance of less

than .600 were examined to determine which should be removed from the analysis (Menard,

1995).

The following independent variables were initially included in the logistic regression:

whether the victim was female; whether the suspect was male; whether the victim was

30 years of age or less; whether the victim was White; whether the victim was employed;

whether the suspect was over 30 years of age; whether the suspect was White; whether

the suspect was unemployed; whether the victim and suspect were former intimates;

and whether the victim and suspect were same-sex. The independent variable whether

the suspect was male was removed from the analysis because it was highly correlated

with the variable whether the victim was female.

To determine whether presenting conditions and outcomes in CSPD domestic violence

crime reports with stalking allegations differed significantly from those in domestic

violence crime reports without stalking allegations, another series of bivariate

analyses was conducted in which characteristics of the presenting incident and the

investigation were compared in crime reports with and without stalking allegations.

Presenting conditions included: whether the victim was physically assaulted; whether

a weapon was used; whether the victim was injured; whether the suspect was using

drugs; whether the suspect was using alcohol; whether the victim was using drugs;

whether the victim was using alcohol; the emotional state of the victim; whether

the victim was the person who called the police; whether the victim signed a release

form; whether the victim signed a request to be notified of further action; whether

children were living in the home; whether witnesses were present; and whether the

victim had an active restraining order against the suspect. Investigation outcomes

included: whether the officer issued a companion summons; whether the officer placed

items in evidence; whether the suspect was charged with a felony; and whether the

police officer made an arrest or issued an arrest warrant.

In each of the bivariate analyses, measures of association were calculated between

nominal-level independent and dependent variables, and the chi-square statistic was

used to test for statistically significant differences between domestic violence

crime reports with stalking allegations and domestic violence crime reports with

no stalking allegations (p-value <. 05). Any estimates based on information from

fewer than five crime reports were deemed unreliable and were not presented in the

tables. Estimates with a minimum expected frequency of less than five were not tested

for statistically significant differences between groups. Because estimates presented

in this article generally exclude "don't know," "missing," and other invalid responses,

sample and subsample sizes (n's) vary from table to table.

RESULTS

Stalking Prevalence in CSPD Domestic Violence Crime Reports

Of the 1,785 domestic violence crime reports included in the sample, only 1 resulted

in the police officer formally charging the suspect with stalking. Based on this

evidence, one might conclude that incidents of domestic violence that are reported

to the CSPD almost never involve stalking. However, this conclusion contradicts findings

from previous studies that have documented a strong link between stalking and other

forms of lethal and nonlethal violence in intimate relationships (McFarlane et al.,

1999; Meloy, 1998; Moracco et al., 1998; Tjaden & Thoennes, 1998).

To more accurately estimate the prevalence of stalking in CSPD domestic violence

crime reports, the frequency with which the victim and/or officer stated in the narrative

section of the crime report that the suspect had stalked the victim or had engaged

in stalking-like behaviors was examined. Of the 1,785 domestic violence crime reports

included in the sample, 1,731 (97 percent) had a victim narrative, a police narrative,

or both, and therefore could be used to estimate the prevalence of stalking in domestic

violence crime reports.2 In 285 (16.5 percent) of these reports, either the victim

or the police officer mentioned in their respective narratives that the suspect had

stalked the victim or had engaged in stalking-like behaviors (see Table 1). Thus,

1 in 6 domestic violence crime reports that were made to the CSPD during the study

time period contained allegations in the victim and/or officer narrative that the

suspect had stalked the victim. Stalking allegations were significantly more prevalent

in crime reports with female versus male victims (18.3 vs. 10.5 percent).

It should be noted that in most of the domestic violence crime reports that were

determined to have stalking allegations there was no mention of the word stalking

in either the victim narrative or the police narrative. Of the 285 reports that were

determined to have stalking allegations, only 14 (2.9 percent) contained the word

stalking in the victim narrative, while 21 (7.4 percent) contained the word stalking

in the officer narrative. Thus, most of the victims who were stalked did not self-identify

as stalking victims on the crime report. Nor were they identified as stalking victims

by police officers.

Risk Factors Associated With Intimate Partner Stalking

Among female victims, stalking allegations were significantly more prevalent if the

woman was White rather than non-White (19.9 vs. 15.2 percent), if the woman was employed

versus unemployed (21.1 vs. 15.1 percent), and if the suspect was unemployed versus

employed (22.3 vs. 16.9 percent). Stalking allegations were also significantly more

prevalent if the woman and suspect were former rather than current intimates: Nearly

half (47.8 percent) of the reports involving women who were victimized by former

dates/cohabitants and about a third (33.7 percent) of the reports involving women

and suspects who were divorced or separated contained stalking allegations. In comparison,

10.9 percent of the reports involving women and suspects who were married, 8.0 percent

of the reports involving women and suspects who were living together, and 22.4 percent

of the reports involving women and suspects who were dating but not living together,

contained stalking allegations. No significant relationship was found between stalking

allegations and the woman's or suspect's age. Although stalking allegations were

more prevalent if the suspect was a female rather than a male partner (22.7 vs. 18.3

percent), this finding must be viewed with caution given the small number of women

(n = 22) who were victimized by a current or former female partner (see Table 2).

With respect to male victims, the study found no significant relationship between

the prevalence of stalking allegations and the victim's age, race, and employment

status, or between the prevalence of stalking allegations and the suspect's age,

race, and employment status. Like women, men were more likely to allege stalking

by former rather than current dates, cohabitants, and spouses. They were also more

likely to allege stalking by male rather than female partners, although these findings

must be viewed with caution given the small number of men (n = 34) who were victimized

by male partners (see Table 2).

Results of the logistic regression reveal that stalking allegations were significantly

more prevalent in CSPD domestic violence crime reports involving female victims and

victims and suspects who were former intimates (see Table 3). The variable that was

most likely to increase the likelihood that a crime report would contain stalking

allegations was whether the victim and suspect were former intimates. In fact, as

the odds ratio [Exp (b) = 5.2083] indicates, crime reports involving former intimates

were about five times more likely to contain stalking allegations than were crime

reports involving current intimates even when other variables were controlled. The

following variables did not predict whether a crime report would contain stalking

allegations: whether the victim was 30 years of age or less; whether the victim was

White; whether the victim was employed; whether the suspect was over 30 years of

age; whether the suspect was White; whether the suspect was employed; and whether

the victim and suspect were a samesex couple.

Presenting Conditions in CSPD Domestic Violence Crime Reports With and Without Stalking

Allegations

As Table 4 shows, CSPD domestic violence crime reports with stalking allegations

differed significantly from those without stalking allegations with respect to several

key presenting conditions. Crime reports with stalking allegations were significantly

less likely than crime reports without stalking allegations to identify physical

abuse or victim injury in the presenting condition, to involve suspects and victims

who were using alcohol at the time of the report, and to involve households with

children regardless if the victim was male or female. Conversely, crime reports with

stalking allegations were significantly more likely to involve victims who were the

persons who called the police and who signed a form releasing information they provided

to investigators. In addition, women who alleged stalking by their partners were

significantly less likely than women who did not allege stalking to be emotionally

distraught at the time of the report. Moreover, women who alleged stalking were significantly

more likely than women who did not allege stalking to sign a form requesting notification

of further action on the case. They were also nearly three times more likely to have

an active restraining order against the suspect at the time of the report.

Law Enforcement Outcomes in CSPD Domestic Violence Crime Reports With and Without

Stalking Allegations

A comparison of law enforcement outcomes in CSPD domestic violence crime reports

with and without stalking allegations revealed very few differences. Police officers

were significantly less likely to issue a companion summons if a man alleged stalking

by his current or former partner. However, whether a male or female victim alleged

stalking had no significant impact on whether police placed items in evidence, charged

a suspect with a felony, or arrested a suspect (see Table 5).

It is important to note that relatively few domestic violence crime reports generated

by the CSPD resulted in the suspect being charged with a felony offense, regardless

if the report involved a male or female victim or if the victim alleged stalking.

Although crime reports involving women who alleged stalking were somewhat more likely

to result in the suspect being charged with a felony, the difference was not statistically

significant.

As Table 6 shows, domestic violence crime reports with stalking allegations tended

to result in different types of charges than those without stalking allegations.

If a woman alleged stalking, the suspect was significantly more likely to be charged

with violation of a restraining order and bail bond violation, and significantly

less likely to be charged with harassment, assault, or intimidation. If a man alleged

stalking, the suspect was significantly less likely to be charged with assault and

intimidation.

CONCLUSIONS

Because the study is based on information from only one police department, the results

should not be extrapolated to the experiences of police departments nationally. Nonetheless,

results from the study provide much needed empirical data on the prevalence of stalking

in domestic violence crime reports, risk factors associated with intimate partner

stalking, and police responses to reports of intimate partner stalking. Results from

the study also provide a benchmark for future research.

Results from this study confirm previous research (McFarlane et al., 1999; Meloy,

1998; Moracco et al., 1998; Tjaden & Thoennes, 1998) that found a link between stalking

and violence in intimate relationships: 1 in 6 of the domestic violence crime reports

(16.5 percent) initiated by the CSPD during the study time period contained evidence

in the victim and/or police narrative that the suspect stalked the victim. Because

this estimate represents stalking allegations that were made spontaneously by the

victim and/or police officer and were not in response to any systematic questioning

about stalking victimization by investigating officers, it probably underestimates

the true amount of intimate partner stalking that occurred in the context of domestic

violence crime reports initiated by the CSPD. To generate more reliable information

about the prevalence of stalking in domestic violence crime reports, police departments

should train their investigating officers to ask questions about possible stalking

victimization when investigating reports of domestic violence. By doing so, police

departments will undoubtedly uncover more incidents of intimate partner stalking

than are being uncovered by current investigatory practices. In turn, awareness of

this serious social problem will be increased among the justice system community

and the public at large.

Results from the study clearly show that police officers almost never charge a domestic

violence stalking suspect with stalking. Only 1 of the 285 domestic violence crime

reports in the study sample that contained evidence of stalking resulted in the suspect

being charged with the crime of stalking. Thus, stalking prevalence estimates that

are based on formal charges made by police officers during the investigation of a

domestic violence crime report substantially underestimate the role stalking plays

in domestic violence cases that are reported to the police. Given these findings,

researchers and policy makers should not consider the number of stalking charges

generated by police officers during their investigation of domestic violence crime

reports an accurate measure of the prevalence of stalking in domestic violence crime

reports.

The study found that in the vast majority of reports that were determined to have

stalking allegations, neither the victim nor the police officer used the word stalking

in their narratives. Instead, they mentioned that the suspect had engaged in stalking-like

behaviors. These findings suggest that most domestic violence victims who have been

stalked by their intimate partners do not self-identify as stalking victims during

the initial stages of the police investigative process. Similarly, many police officers

do not define intimate partner stalking cases as stalking cases during the initial

stages of the investigative process. Further research is needed to understand why

intimate partner stalking victims who come to the attention of law enforcement tend

not to self-identify as stalking victims and under what circumstances these victims

come to perceive of themselves as stalking victims and use language that reflects

their perceptions. Research is also needed to understand the processes by which law

enforcement officers identify and label domestic violence crime reports that contain

evidence of stalking as stalking cases.

The present study confirms previous research that shows women are the primary victims

of intimate partner stalking (Tjaden & Thoennes, 1998, 2000a, 2000b). While nearly

a fifth (18.3 percent) of the female victims alleged stalking by their partners,

only about a tenth (10.5 percent) of the men did so. Furthermore, results of a logistic

regression show that CSPD domestic violence crime reports involving female victims

were significantly more likely to contain allegations that the suspect stalked the

victim even when the effects of other sociodemographic variables were controlled.

Given these findings, research and intervention strategies should focus on stalking

perpetrated against women by male intimates. Results of a logistic regression also

show that the variable most likely to predict that a CSPD domestic violence crime

report contained stalking allegations was whether the suspect was a former rather

than a current intimate partner. These findings support the theory that when women

are stalked by an intimate partner, the stalking typically occurs after the women

attempt to leave the relationship (National Institute of Justice, 1996). Given these

findings, police officers should be made aware that domestic violence crime reports

involving suspects and victims who are former intimates pose the highest risk for

stalking.

The study produced clear evidence that domestic violence crime reports with stalking

allegations exhibit significantly different presenting conditions during the initial

interview with the police than do crime reports without such allegations. Both women

and men who were stalked by their partners were significantly more likely to have

been the person who made the report to the police and to sign a form releasing the

information they provided to investigators. These findings suggest that domestic

violence victims who have been stalked by their partner may be more eager to see

their perpetrator prosecuted than are domestic violence victims who have not been

stalked. These findings also support anecdotal evidence from a survey of justice

system practitioners that found victims are the principal source of information and

evidence that stalking is occurring, particularly at the earliest stages of case

development (Violence Against Women Grants Office, 1998).

CSPD domestic violence crime reports with stalking allegations were significantly

less likely to identify physical abuse and victim injury in the presenting condition

or to involve suspects and victims who were using alcohol at the time of the incident.

And if the victim was a woman, they were significantly more likely to involve an

active restraining order against the suspect. Moreover, women who alleged stalking

were significantly less likely to be emotionally distraught (e.g., crying, yelling,

angry, withdrawn) at the time of the initial interview. These findings are important

because they suggest that domestic violence cases with a stalking component have

distinctively different presenting conditions than do domestic violence cases without

a stalking component. Further research is needed to verify these findings and to

identify other presenting conditions that are characteristic of domestic violence

stalking cases. Results of this type of research should be disseminated to police

departments nationally so that investigating officers can be trained to recognize

the specific characteristics of domestic violence stalking cases and the specific

needs of domestic violence stalking victims.

The study found that domestic violence crime reports with stalking allegations did

not result in law enforcement outcomes that were significantly different from domestic

violence crime reports without stalking allegations. Police officers were significantly

less likely to issue a companion summons if a man alleged stalking by his partner.

This finding is difficult to explain without additional information. It is possible

that police officers issued fewer companion summons because domestic violence crime

reports with stalking allegations were less likely to involve victims and suspects

who were mutually abusive. However, more research is needed to determine whether

this explanation is valid.

The study confirms previous anecdotal evidence from criminal justice practitioners

that stalkers tend to be charged and sentenced under harassment and related charges

rather than under a state's antistalking statute (Violence Against Women Grants Office,

1998). As previously noted, only 1 of the 285 CSPD domestic violence crime reports

that contained stalking allegations resulted in the police officer charging the suspect

with stalking. Instead, CSPD police officers tended to charge suspects who were alleged

to have stalked their victim with harassment and, in cases involving female victims,

with violation of a restraining order.

There are many possible reasons why CSPD police officers failed to charge intimate

partner stalkers with the crime of stalking. The Colorado antistalking statute was

in a state of legal flux at the time of the study. The statute faced three constitutional

challenges during the year the sample was drawn (1998). The Colorado antistalking

statute was also amended halfway during the study time frame (July 1998). CSPD investigating

officers may have been aware of these legal fluctuations and been reluctant to charge

suspects under a statute that was in the process of being amended and whose constitutionality

was in question. Lack of familiarity with the law also may have kept CSPD investigating

officers from charging suspects with the crime of stalking. Anecdotal information

suggests that few police officers are familiar with or understand their states antistalking

statute, and that few have received training on how to investigate stalking cases.

As CSPD police officers receive more training and become more familiar with the stalking

statute, they may use it more frequently. In addition, the credible threat requirement

in the old Colorado antistalking statute may have impeded CSPD officers from charging

suspects with stalking. The amended Colorado antistalking statute does not require

stalkers to make a credible threat against the victim and according to at least one

CSPD official, as a result it is much easier to prosecute stalking cases (Hethcock,

1999). Finally, CSPD officers may have charged intimate partner stalkers with harassment

or violation of a restraining order rather than stalking because they wanted to intervene

in the case at the earliest possible opportunity. Stalking cases are very time-consuming

to put together (Violence Against Women Grants Office, 1998). In contrast, documenting

a harassment or violation of a restraining order is easier and less time consuming.

It is important to note that these explanations for why CSPD police officers failed

to charge most stalkers with the crime of stalking are based on hunches, not scientific

evidence. Research of a more qualitative nature is needed to determine how and under

what circumstances police officers and other criminal justice practitioners come

to define and label domestic violence crime reports with stalking allegations as

stalking cases. Research also is needed to determine how representative the findings

from this study are of police departments nationally.

-1-

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com

Publication Information:

Article Title: The Role of Stalking in Domestic Violence Crime Reports Generated

by the Colorado Springs Police Department. Contributors: Patricia Tjaden - author,

Nancy Thoennes - author. Journal Title: Violence and Victims. Volume: 15. Issue:

4. Publication Year: 2000. Page Number: 427+. © 2000 Springer Publishing Company.

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