Staying Safe From Stalking - What Works?

Do risk assessments work?

In short yes, stalking victims should do risk assessments.

Essentially "risk assessments" involve examining the details of a stalking case (e.g. is the stalker a former partner, does the stalker have a weapon, etc.) to determine how dangerous the situation is. This in turn helps victims (and authorities) decide what precautions to take.

Basically, risk assessments work because there are factors (that have been shown to be) associated with increased danger.

For example, if a stalker is monitoring the victim's daily activities, physical violence and homicide are more likely (according to this article citing other articles. And so the victim (and authorities) may want to be on high alert.

This article has a useful summary of factors that increase the risk of violence in stalking cases (see Table 1). https://www.upstate.edu/psych/pdf/education/fellowships/stalking_intervention.pdf

Do protection orders (PO) work?

This meta-analysis suggests that POs aren't enough to keep victims safe – in cases of domestic violence that involve stalking. And so POs must be combined with other interventions.

The meta-analysis examines whether protection orders (PO) are effective in reducing domestic violence. Stalking comes in, as some domestic violence cases involve stalking.

Overall, the analysis finds there is "emerging evidence" that POs reduce "subsequent violence to some extent". However, this is for domestic violence cases that don't involve stalking and a few other factors.

So what about domestic violence cases that do involve stalking? Doesn't look promising. The analysis reports:

"All five studies [included in the meta-analysis] investigating stalking reported stalking to be a significant predictive factor for ongoing PO violations and increased physical, psychological, and sexual violence to victims, as well as poorer mental health and a lower sense of safety."

Why? Potentially because stalking is harder to prove and is taken less urgently by authorities.

The analysis concludes:

"effectiveness of POs [for stalking victims] may only be achieved ... when POs are combined with community-based interventions that offer further education, support, and resources to victims together with greater surveillance of offenders."

A bit on the meta-analysis's methodology:

• The analyses include 25 studies, covering 31,586 participants.

• All studies were US-based, except 1 study (Sweden).

• Most victims in the studies were female, while most offenders were male.

• Of the 25 studies: "19 were case series, 3 used a case control study design, 2 were retrospective cohort studies, and 1 was a prospective cohort study."

What steps taken by victims/survivors are effective?

I'll be looking into this. For now, parking papers to read:

• Villacampa and Pujols

A framing post

It seems like there are (at least) three categories of interventions to help victims/survivors stay safe from stalking:

1. Safety precautions victims can take.

2. Interventions to help victims access legal protection.

3. Interventions to change behaviours of stalkers (and the wider public).

In this board, let's identify specific interventions (from any of these three categories) and discuss how they may (or may not) be effective – based on research and other evidence.