The stalking behaviour. Victimological aspects and analysis of two representative cases

Abstract

Stalking - or “troubling bothers syndrome” - constitutes a comprehensive behavioural model of conformity and crime, since it represents an undue “amplification and accentuation” of the same conformity of a behaviour (for example the courting), more than a transgression of normative conventions. Scientific literature has elaborated manifold and accurate relative classifications as much to the typology of the troublesome behaviours, as for the characteristics of the active subjects. Nevertheless, it is not possible to leave out of consideration victimological analysis, first since it’s the victim - through his/her subjective perception - to define as stalking the behaviour carried out by another subject. The series of harassments comes from native misunderstanding on nature of relationship created between stalker and victim and it gets worse because of a second misunderstanding about limits of the same relationship. Stalking seems essentially to originate from a relationship and communication trouble and in this sense the growth of the phenomenon appears correlated with relationships crisis typical of post-modern societies. The role and the characteristics of victim are decisive elements in stalking behaviours - together with relationship context - and in this picture female affiliation is underlined as important general risk factor, first of all in situations of interruption or refusal of a sentimental relationship, but also in other circles as that of professional relationship: for instance, in the situation of patient and doctor, of psychotherapist, or in teacher-student relation. The Authors illustrate two clinical examples representative of typical situations of stalking against women, the first one acted by a psychiatric patient, the second one carried out by a rejected partner. In both cases, some victim unsuitable behaviours increased potential dangerousness of the situations. To evaluate effectiveness of the strategies against various forms of stalking, it’s strictly necessary to pay attention to elements that characterize such dynamics, first of all the gradual nature of their evolution, that emphasizes the importance to have rapid and normatively “light” tools of intervention, to already apply in the initial phases of bothers.