Survey findings indicated that stalking is a bigger problem than previously thought, affecting about 1.4 million victims annually. The survey showed that stalking was strongly linked to the controlling behavior and physical, emotional, and sexual abuse perpetrated against women by intimate partners. About half of all female stalking victims reported their victimization to the police and about 25 percent obtained a restraining order. To screen for stalking victimization, the survey asked about specific harassing and threatening behaviors respondents had experienced repeatedly from marital and cohabitating partners, friends, acquaintances, relatives, and strangers. The survey was fielded between November 1995 and May 1996.
Survey results Incidence and prevalence.
When the raw figures were extrapolated to 1995 estimates of the adult population, the results projected 8.2 million female and 2 million male lifetime stalking victims, most of whom were stalked by only one stalker. In most cases, stalking episodes lasted 1 year or less, but, in a few cases, stalking continued for 5 or more years. Researchers estimate that approximately 1 million women and 400,000 men are stalked each year in the United States. Most victims knew their stalker. Only 21 percent of stalkers identified by female victims were strangers.