One quarter of stalking cases reported to the police result in an arrest. Eighty-seven percent of all restraining orders against stalkers are violated. Nearly one in four victims who reported stalking to the police said their cases were prosecuted. Slightly more than half of cases in which criminal charges were filed resulted in a conviction. Nearly two-thirds of convictions resulted in jail time for the perpetrator.
Women are twice as likely as men to be stalked by an intimate partner.
The authors of the report, Patricia Tjaden, Ph.D. and Nancy Thoennes, Ph.D., concluded that stalking victims should develop personal safety plans that include relocating as far away from the perpetrator as possible and securing a confidential mailing address. The survey of 8,000 women and 8,000 men was conducted from November 1995 to May 1996. The stalking data were released as part of the Justice Department's annual report to Congress mandated by the 1994 Violence Against Women Act. The Center for Policy Research is a private, nonprofit organization that specializes in empirical research on family violence. For a copy of safety considerations and measure for victims of stalking, call Selena Neal in Texas, at 512 794-1133.