January Is National Stalking Awareness Month

January is National Stalking Awareness Month, a time to focus on a crime that affects 3.4 million victims a year. This year’s theme – “Stalking: Know It. Name It. Stop It.” – challenges the nation to fight this dangerous crime by learning more about it.
Stalking is a crime in all 50 states and the Distric of Columbia, yet many victims and criminal justci professionals underestimate its seriousness and impact. In one of five cases, stalkers use weapons to harm or threaten victims, and stalking is one of the significant risk factors for femicide (homicide of women) in abusive relationships. Victims suffer anxiety, social dysfunction, and sever depression at much higher rates than the general population, and many lose tiem from work or have to move as a result of their victimization.
Stalking is difficult to recognize, investigate, and prosecute. Unlike other crimes, stalking is not a single, easily identifiable crime but a series of acts, a course of conduct directed at a specific person that woudl cause that person fear. Stalking may take many forms, such as assaults, threats, vandalism, burglary, animal abuse, as well as unwanted cards, calls, gifts or visits. 1 in 4 victims reports that the stalker uses technology, such as computers, GPS devices, or hidden cameras, to track the victims daily activities. Stalkers fit no standard psychological profile, and many stalkers follow their victim from one jurisdiction to another, making it difficult for authorities to investigate and prosecute their crimes.
Communities that understand stalking, however, can support victims and combat the crime.
To learn more about stalking please contact the Avalon Center locally or www.ncvc.org/src