“It's Not Really Stalking If You Know the Person”: Measuring Community Attitudes That Normalize, Justify and Minimise Stalking

Abstract

It has been hypothesised that attitudes minimising, justifying and normalising stalking exist in the community, influencing whether or not stalking is recognised, and potentially affecting the responses of police and others to whom victims turn for support. This study investigates the nature of these attitudes as measured using the Stalking Related Attitudes Questionnaire (SRAQ). Two hundred and forty-four community members and 280 police officers in Victoria, Australia (total sample 61% male, mean age D 43.3, SD D 13.3) completed the SRAQ. Full information factor analysis identified three underlying stalking-related attitudes: "stalking isn't serious", "stalking is romantic" and "victims are to blame". Males endorsed all to a greater extent than females, whereas police and community only differed in that police believed stalking to be more serious. Stronger stereotype endorsement was related to judgements of not guilty in a fictional stalking case. These results indicate that attitudes and beliefs that downplay, excuse and normalise stalking behaviour can be measured, and have some influence on recognition of stalking behaviour.

Female undergraduate's perceptions of intrusive behavior in 12 countries

“…The other principal method of examining perceptions of stalking and intrusive behavior involves respondents reading through a list of intrusive activities and indicating those they believe to constitute stalking, or consider to be unacceptable (see Chapman & Spitzberg, 2003;Jagessar & Sheridan, 2004;Lambert, Smith, Geistman, Cluse-Tolar, & Jiang, 2013;McKeon, McEwan, & Luebbers, 2015;Pereira, Matos, Sheridan, & Scott, 2015;Sheridan, Davies, & Boon, 2001;Sheridan, Gillett, & Davies, 2000;Sheridan, Gillett, & Davies, 2002;Yanowitz, 2006). These works were conducted in Australia, Japan, Portugal, Trinidad, the United Kingdom, and the United States.…”

Stalkers : what are they thinking?

“…This differential reinforcement may account for the persistence, as this process continues to take place, and as they believe more and more that the perceived benefits are worth the risk. This leads perpetrators to believe that stalking is sometimes justifiable, which is similar to findings other researchers have found (Cass, 2011;Lippman, 2015;McKeon et al, 2015;Zona, Sharma, & Lane, 1993). Because of this view, social learning theory indicates that stalkers are likely to rationalize or neutralize their own deviant behaviors and are likely to feel reified by condoning the stalking activities of others.…”

“…Research on stalking is also heavily dominated by Caucasian populations. However, research has expanded to other countries, such as Australia (Dennison & Thomson, 2000McKeon, McEwan, & Luebbers, 2015); Canada (Mohandie, Meloy, McGowan, & Williams, 2006); the United Kingdom (Sheridan, Davies, & Boon, 2001a, 2001bSheridan & Lyndon, 2012); Korea (Gu & Lee, 2016);…”

“…Several popular movies and songs that are enjoyed and taken for granted in our culture actually depict stalking, representing it as normal, romantic, and an acceptable way to show love (e.g., songs such as Animal, Every Breath You Take, Latch, and Sugar We're Going Down, and movies such as There's Something About Mary, Crazy, Stupid Love, Love, Actually, and Twilight). This romantic persistence is a quality that has been prized within our culture and celebrated in film and music (Dunn, 1999;McKeon et al, 2015). Many romantic comedies and soap operas portray persistence as an effective way to win the heart of someone you like, equating stalking to love and affection (Brewster, 2003).…”

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“…Interestingly, the idea that teenagers "will grow out of it" (Boyd, 2014, p. 137) remains a pervasive theme in the literature (Marwick & Boyd, 2014;Author, 2016). Research into general community attitudes towards stalking behavior, highlights the danger of accepting this stance (McKeon, McEwan, & Luebbers, 2014). Results from this study demonstrate that stalking is more readily endorsed by males than females.…”