This month marks the fifth annual National Stalking Awareness Month to raise awareness of stalking and its impact on victims. Data from a 2005 Center of Disease Control study has indicated that approximately seven million women and two million men in the U.S. alone have been stalked at some point in their lives. While the definition of stalking varies across different jurisdictions, victims have frequently had their lives disrupted by harassing or threatening behaviour, which is often a precursor to violence. An estimated 76% of cases of intimate partner homicide have involved victims being stalked before their deaths.
To learn more about stalking and what you can do about it, the National Centre for Victims of Crime maintains a Stalking Resources Center site at http://www.ncvc.org/src/main.aspx. Information on the Department of Justice stalking study can be found here.
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