Stalking as a form of (domestic) violence against women: two of a kind?

Abstract

Stalking is often interpreted within the framework of violence against women or domestic violence. Contrary to research on domestic violence, the gender-specificity or the domestic violence context of stalking has received only little attention. Overwhelming empirical evidence suggests that stalking ‘disproportionally affects women’ in the sense that women run a higher risk of falling victim to stalking. Some studies also attribute more severe consequences to female victimization of stalking.

There is furthermore evidence that a former (violent) relationship increases the risk of stalking victimization and that a prior romantic involvement has an influence on the seriousness and duration of the stalking. As a result, stalking can be considered a form of (domestic) violence against women. Although the violence against women and the domestic violence paradigms were once very useful in generating attention for the problem of stalking, and although empirical evidence suggests that these perspectives remain useful to date, the fact that stalking is a heterogeneous phenomenon, affecting male and female, intimate and non-intimate victims, should always be kept in mind. Legislation which explicitly (e.g., by reserving protection orders to victims of ex-intimate stalking) or inadvertently (e.g., by using a fear-requirement or by including gender-specific stalking tactics) excludes certain offenders or victims, as is the case in some EU Member States and the CoE Convention on Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, should be avoided.