National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Intimate Partner Stalking 2012

The National Institute of Justice produced a comprehensive document on Intimate Partner Stalking

Research shows that partner [1] stalking is a relatively common form of violence against women, and to a lesser degree men.

• Partner stalking is the largest category of stalking cases. [2-5]
• Approximately 1 in 6 women (16.2%) in the United States has experienced stalking at some point in her lifetime, according to the CDC's 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence e Survey. About 4%, or approximately 5.2 million women, were stalked in the 12 months prior to taking the survey. Two-thirds of the female victims of stalking (66.2%) reported stalking by a current or former intimate partner in their lifetime. [6]
• Approximately 1 in 19 men (5.2%) in the United States has experienced stalking victimization at some point during his lifetime in which he felt very fearful or believed that he or someone close to him would be harmed or killed as a result, and 1.3% of men (about 1.4 million) reported being stalked in the 12 months prior to taking the survey. Approximately 4 out of 10 male stalking victims (41.4%) reported that they had been stalked by an intimate partner in their lifetime. [7]
• College women appear to experience partner stalking at high rates. Approximately 5.3 percent of female college students from a large national sample of students reporting being stalked by an intimate partner in about a 7-month period.[8] For this study, stalking was defined to include repeated following; waiting outside a classroom, residence, workplace, or other buildings or car; watching; telephoning; writing letters, cards, emails, etc.; and communicating with the respondent in other ways that seemed obsessive and made the respondent afraid or concerned for her safety.
• Another smaller study of college women found that 6.9 percent of the sample was stalked by a current or former partner. [9]

Relationship Context.Partner stalking overlaps with a history of partner physical and sexual violence and coercive control. [10-24] Several studies have identified a significant association between partner stalking and sexual assault. [25-31]

• 74 percent of those stalked by a former intimate partner reported violence or coercive control during the relationship, whereas 26 percent did not. [32]
• 81 percent of women stalked by a former or current partner were also physically assaulted by that partner. [33]

Learn more about:

• The duration and trajectory of partner stalking.
• Intimate partner stalking tactics.
• Comparing the danger posed by partner stalkers versus non-partner stalkers.
• Comparing the danger posed by abusive partners who do and do not stalk.
• Fear, psychological distress and health impacts of intimate partner stalking.
• Economic harm caused by intimate partner stalking.
• Impact of intimate partner stalking on children, friends and family.
• Criminal justice response to intimate partner stalking.