Stalking Introduction

What is stalking?

Behavior wherein an individual willfully and repeatedly engages in a knowing course of harassing conduct directed at another person which reasonably and seriously alarms, torments, or terrorizes that person.

Stalking involves one person's obsessive behavior toward another person. Initially, stalking will usually take the form of annoying, threatening, or obscene telephone calls, emails or letters. The calls may start with one or two a day but can quickly increase in frequency. Stalkers may conduct covert surveillance of the victim, following every move his target makes. Even the victim's home may be staked out.

Virginia's anti-stalking laws may prevent some people from stalking, but this isn't clearly known yet. Others will stop after they have been arrested, prosecuted, and convicted once or twice. But, unfortunately, most stalkers are not stopped by laws. Studies of stalkers seem to indicate that they stop when their target is no longer available to them, or they find someone else to harass.

What can be done about it?
Stalking makes a victim doubt reality and wonder if there is anything that can really be done to stop the stalker. Yet, there are practical steps that a person being stalked can take, that work in concert with efforts by law enforcement, University administrators, and allies, and that can help her or him being to regain some control over her/his life. A stalker tracking form can help you record stalking incidents--use it as a model to create your own form, or write on it directly. Download the firm (which is in Adobe Acrobat) from the menu bar on the left side of this page. If you do not have Adobe Reader, the link to download the free software is below.

Download Adobe Acrobat Reader (free)