Factors Associated with Escalation and Problematic Approaches Toward Public Figures*

Abstract

Detailed comparison of factors associated with abnormal approach to the prominent and with escalation from communication to approach has not hitherto been undertaken. This partially reflects the failure of individual studies to adopt compatible terminologies. This study involves a careful dissection of six public figure studies, three involving U.S. politicians, two Hollywood celebrities, and one the British Royal Family. Common findings were unearthed across six headings. Approachers were significantly more likely to exhibit serious mental illness, engage in multiple means of communication, involve multiple contacts/targets, and to incorporate into their communication requests for help. They were significantly less likely to use threatening or antagonistic language in their communications, except in those cases involving security breaches. These results emphasize the importance of integrating mental health findings and preventive measures into risk management. Approach should not be regarded as a single behavioral category and has multiple motivations. Future studies should adopt standard terminology, preferably taken from the general stalking research.

Stalking experiences reported by Norwegian members of Parliament compared to a population sample

“…They participate in social media, and their movements are easy to follow for those interested. Our survey found the same pattern as corresponding international studies show that the prevalence among MP is significantly higher than in the general population sample (James et al, 2007(James et al, , 2009Meloy et al, 2011). On one hand, politicians want contact with and feedback from voters, party members, and supporters and engaged laypersons.…”

Content Analysis for Proactive Protective Intelligence

“…Only a handful of studies on abnormal communications and approaches to prominent people have been carried out to-date and no compatible terminologies have emerged [2]. Yet, these studies have demonstrated that the occurrence of problematic approaches can be meaningfully related to quantifiable behavioral factors observed in abnormal communications and therefore offer a serviceable basis on which to develop a PPI approach.…”

“…As reported in [2], six studies have been carried out to date on abnormal communication and approach to prominent people: one on the British royal family [18], two on Hollywood celebrities [19,20], and three on the U.S. Congress [21,22,23]. The studies relate the occurrence of problematic approaches to factors such as mental illness, threatening or antagonistic communication, requests for help, multiple means of communication, and multiple contacts and targets.…”

“…Our prospected PPI approach leverages existing work on abnormal communications and approaches to prominent people [2] and is based on the Frames in Action platform [3,4,5]. 1 The Frames in Action platform integrates information extraction, content analysis and computer modeling methods with theories of radical rhetoric to make qualitative and quantitative assessments of violent intent from the study of verbal communication behavior.…”

“…Use insights from existing studies on abnormal communications and approaches [2] to tune the information extraction and content analysis capabilities available in the Frames in Action platform to the protective intelligent domain.…”