STALKING & DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
ACTION AGAINST VIOLENCE
July 27, 2009
ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND STALKING
Don’t know if you’ve caught the myriad accounts – in the papers, on TV and radio – but there’s been an alarming rise in police officers, women, men and even children killed and maimed as a result of stalking and domestic violence. I even get personal accounts from law enforcement officers and citizens whom I train in my instructor programs, Management of Workplace Violence courses and Self Defense for Women programs to the point where I am convinced that I need to focus this and the next few posts on the issues surrounding Domestic Violence, Stalking, and Violence Against Women and Children.
ON STALKING
LEGAL DEFINITIONS vary widely from state to state. Most states, however, define stalking as the willful, malicious and repeated following and harassing of another person. Stalking related activities include as lying in wait; surveillance; non-consensual communications; telephone harassment and vandalism. Most states require at least two or more of acts of the above nature before the actions can be considered harassment. The action(s) also need to constitute at least an implied/inferred threat.
AS FAR AS I am concerned, the key is that the victim understands the danger of stalking if it is allowed to continue unchecked. Domestic Violence is directly connected to stalking and both occur in a continuum that ranges from emotional abuse at one end to homicide on the other. And the escalation of violence along this catastrophic continuum often follows a predictable pattern. My goal here is to formulate responses and countermeasures to break what I see as a cycle of violence.
STALKING AND VIOLENCE BY AN INTIMATE
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, as you probably are aware, is all about control, power and domination. For this reason, when a woman leaves her abuser, he often stalks her in an effort to regain control over her. Sadly, this control is effected through increasing physical violence. Thus, when a woman leaves her abusing husband/boyfriend, it is an extremely dangerous time for her (and her children and anyone else who happens to care for her, or attempt to protect her, establish a relationship with her).
STALKING – make no mistake – is an act that terrorizes its victims. Stalking creates a psychological prison that deprives its victim(s) of basic liberty of movement and security in their homes. Moreover, stalking is a crime that often occurs in a domestic violence context, and, unfortunately, follows a traceable pattern that, if left unreported and unchecked by the victim, will often (in my experience it will almost always increase in intensity and violence exponentially, but I am being conservative in this post) increase in intensity and violence and all too often end in the death of the woman, plus anyone unfortunate enough to be around her at the moment!
As a matter of fact, just in the past few weeks an emotionally distraught ex-husband stalked and killed his wife, his children, his wife’s boyfriend, and several of his wife’s friends and relatives across three states!
Next Post: More on Stalking and Domestic Violence, including intervention programs, stalking countermeasures, and self defense suggestions.
Until then, Stay Safe.
Hammer