Stalking in Portugal: facing a remarkable challenge...

Abstract

There is no consensual definition of stalking. It varies across countries, and even in the same country, it varies across domains (e.g., legal; scientific). In fact, this is still a debatable and controversial topic that results in different scientific stalking definitions and measures (Sheridan, Blaauw & Davis, 2003). Even so, nowadays stalking is mainly conceptualized from a gender perspective (Kamir, 2001; Lowney & Best, 1995) and included in relational violence (Spitzberg, 2002).

Although studies on stalking have been carried out (Spitzberg & Cupach, 2007), stalking victimization has been investigated through several designs, methods and samples. That diversity allows a complementary and a deeper understanding of the phenomenon but, on the other hand, appropriate comparisons are difficult and complex (Dressing, Kuehner & Gass, 2006). After describing the overall picture regarding stalking victimization in the international context, we state that Portugal faces a transition stage. Being so, in this article we examined the Portuguese background regarding stalking, focusing on past and current developments, namely social and scientific. We consider that soon stalking will be established as a police and criminal phenomenon, since it is now in the judicial agenda.