Stalking
Stalking is a perpetrator’s use of a repeated, unwanted pattern of harassing or threatening tactics that causes a victim to feel fear or concern for their safety. Tactics range from following, showing up at a home or workplace, and sending unwanted gifts or messages, to surreptitious, technology-facilitated methods such as GPS tracking, spying through cameras or Stalkerware, and relentless contact via phone, text and social media. The defining elements are repetition and induced fear; this overlaps closely with Coercive Control and with Location Tracking Abuse, since the same monitoring that terrorises a victim also enables further control. Most victims know their stalker — intimate partners and acquaintances are the most common perpetrators.
It is widespread. The CDC’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey finds that roughly 1 in 5 women and 1 in 10 men experience stalking during their lifetime, with state-level female lifetime prevalence ranging from about 15.6% to 35.2%. Nearly 58% of female and 49% of male victims were first stalked before age 25. US Bureau of Justice Statistics data has estimated millions of stalking and harassment victims each year. Crucially, the technology-facilitated tactics that require no physical proximity are often the hardest to detect, so their true prevalence is likely underestimated — a core challenge for Tech-Enabled Abuse response.
In this vault
- Subtype ofGender-Based Violence
- Enabled byStalkerware
- Related toLocation Tracking Abuse
- Related toCoercive Control