January is National Stalking Awareness Month and 2010 marks the 15th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act. To commemorate both events, the Department of Justice held a panel discussion today on how serious stalking victimization is in the United States.
As our personal relationships and dating have evolved over time with changing technologies, so has stalking.
Sometimes, we use the word “stalking” loosely -- to “Facebook stalk” someone, meaning to track or look at different profiles on the social networking site, has become a common term in this digital age as a sort of joke.
But for those who have faced the terror of harassing phone calls, nasty emails and even death threats over text message in a world where technology is unavoidable, stalking is no laughing matter.
“This year can’t be an anniversary, it has to be a dedication,” Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli said in his welcoming remarks. “The use of technology by stalkers has become common practice.”
In an average year, 3.4 million Americans over the age of 18 are stalked, and one in four victims reported some sort of cyberstalking such as email (83 percent) or instant-messaging (35 percent), according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).
Host of Investigation Discovery and panel moderator Paula Zahn led the emotional discussion, saying that the majority of domestic homicides begin with stalking and that "we must help communities to see stalking as criminal."
Cindy Southworth, founder and director of the Safety Net Project and a panel participant, said technology has made stalking easier for suspects to track and harass their victims.
“The phone was used extensively in the '90s,” Southworth said. “Now it’s GPS tracking systems under the hood of the car when years ago, it was checking the odometer” to monitor when the victim left their homes and how far they went.
Southworth also pointed out that the evolution of spyware and the SpoofCard has also changed stalking habits.
With spyware, perpetrators can see the victim’s computer activity, “even see if they’re looking up information about stalking… without (the victim having) any knowledge that the stalker is seeing what they’re doing.”
One in 13 victims reported that electronic monitoring of some sort was used by their stalkers to follow them, according to the BJS.
Other members on the panel agreed that there were several other reasons why stalking continues to be widespread, including judges, prosecutors and jurors not being well educated on what it means to be stalked, as well as law enforcement not taking complaints seriously.
“Stalking is a relatively young crime. It’s less than two decades old,” said Michelle Garcia, director of the Stalking Resource Center and a panel participant. “It takes a coordinated community to effectively take on stalking.”
Garcia also noted that one of the main reasons why stalkers get away with their actions is because the victims “don’t know what happened to them is a crime ... they get the sense that it only happens to celebrities or it’s not a big deal.”
Southworth’s advice to victims is if you think you’re being stalked, don’t delete anything or remove any tracking devices.
“It’s brilliant digital evidence ... there is always a digital trail -- an IP address, text messages -- there’s always a digital trail.” Southworth said.
Tags: Cell Phone Safety, Cell Phones, Communication, Computer and Internet Security, Conservation,
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