A Program of       

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Volume 3, Number 1, Winter 2003

Fear on Campus:
The Problem and Prevalence of Stalking

Stalking on college campuses is occurring at an alarming rate and it now appears that college students are at greater risk of being stalked than other populations. According to the most recent National Sexual Victimization of College Women Survey, more than one in eight, or 13 percent, of female college students surveyed had been stalked within a six- to nine-month period. 1 This rate compares with the estimated one in twelve women and one in forty-five men who will be stalked in their lifetime. 2

Why College Campuses?

Campus Stalking, a report published by the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA), underscores aspects of campus life that increase the risk of stalking. 3 For example, college campuses generally offer an open atmosphere that is very appealing for students, many of whom are living-likely for the first time-without direct parental supervision. College buildings and residence halls provide relatively easy access to virtually anyone who wishes to enter the premises. Students tend to follow predictable schedules, attending classes and eating meals at the same time each day, week after week.

These same features, ironically, increase the risk for stalking behavior. Campus stalkers can easily familiarize themselves with a student's comings and goings-and campus buildings that don't have 24-hour security provide stalkers with physical proximity to their victims.

The numerous social opportunities college campuses provide- and, in fact, many boast-provide another risk factor that makes students more vulnerable to stalking. Many college students are at a point in their lives where dating and seeking romance become more important to them. Many intimate relationships are newly formed on college campuses. It's well established that most female victims are stalked by current or former intimate partners such as dating partners, spouses, or cohabiting partners. 4 What was viewed initially by college students as positive, romantic attention, may turn into the repeated unwanted attention, harassment, and contact that characterizes stalking.

Low Reporting Rates

Compounding the problem of stalking on college campuses is the shockingly low reporting rate among students. The National Sexual Victimization of College Women Survey found that 83 percent of students who were stalked did not notify the campus police or other school authorities. 5 The two main reasons students gave for not reporting the crime were that students either thought the police would not take the stalking seriously or that they were not aware that the unwanted behavior was a crime.

One College Takes on Stalking

After a review of the victimization of college women study, Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin, conducted their own survey to gauge the prevalence of stalking on their campus. What they found was that their own survey mirrored the national statistics.

In November 2002, Edgewood College, coordinated a comprehensive training and planning program for participants that represented a broad cross section of the college community. Conducted on-site by the Stalking Resource Center over a two-and-a-half-day period, the multifaceted program was designed to raise awareness of stalking on campus and to create a forum for discussion on how Edgewood can effectively respond to victims. Numerous student peer educators participated in a training session that provided general background on stalking and specific methods for supporting stalking victims. A similar training was provided for first responders including staff and resident assistants. Representatives from student health and campus counseling services participated in brainstorming sessions to generate ideas on establishing a support group for the survivors of stalking.

The program concluded with a roundtable discussion on the establishment of a multidisciplinary response to stalking at Edgewood College. Participants included the Dean of Students and staff from the offices of Health and Safety, Health Services, Security, and Residence Life. This meeting laid the foundation for Edgewood's unique response to stalking.

Colleges Uniquely Positioned to Address Stalking

Of the estimated 9,653 colleges and universities throughout the United States, relatively few have taken affirmative steps to support stalking victims on their campuses. 6 College campuses, however, are in a unique position to support victims. For example, many universities and colleges have counseling centers already in place. Additional training for campus counselors to support stalking victims can be done easily. Campus security is available and often located on the college grounds. When a report is made, or incident occurs, campus police can easily take the victim to the college health or counseling center. This contrasts with many law enforcement agencies who would have to transport the victim often miles to a completely separate victim agency. On college campuses, the security, the counseling center, the health center as well as other centers, are all parts of the same organization rather than separate entities. When a campus adopts a stalking protocol, all agencies within the college community can respond in unison. Outside the university setting, the different service providers are often separate organizations each with their own different and often conflicting policies and protocol.

Universities can provide the victim with one, unified, multidisciplinary response all coordinated together through one central organizational structure, all located in the same location. When a victim resides on campus, these services are also all located where the victim resides providing unparalleled access. Additionally, many colleges already have policies regarding sexual assault, which can provide a solid foundation from which to build an effective response to stalking. With all these advantages, college campuses can address stalking in many unique and creative ways.

1. Bonnie Fisher, Francis T. Cullen, and Michael G. Turner, (2000). Sexual Victimization of College Women, U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, Washington, DC.
2. Tjaden, Patricia, and Nancy Thoennes. (1998). "Stalking in America: Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey." Washington, D.C.: National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
3. Kirkland, Connie J., (2002). Campus Stalking. California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA), Sacramento, CA.
4. Fisher et. al at p. 28.
5. IBID at 28.
6. Brown, Patricia Q., (2001). Institution in the United States: 1993-94, 1998-99, US Department of Education, National Center for Education.

Volume 6, Number 1, Winter 2006

Anita's plight is hardly unique. Abusers often become stalkers. And stalkers tenaciously pursue their victims. Yet Anita's story is somewhat unusual. In her case, the stalker had little trouble finding his ex-wife because she has a disability: she is deaf.¹ To locate Anita, Ed (who is also deaf) simply contacted the Social Security Administration to "inquire" whether the Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) checks his children receive as this dependents were reaching them. In answering Ed's question, the agency gave him Anita's new address.

Victims with Disabilities

Anita's difficulties in escaping her ex-husband suggest the complex challenges that stalking victims with disabilities face. Stalkers may target these victims because of their disabilities or exploit their disabilities in committing crimes. Victims face formidable burdens in protecting themselves, unique barriers to reporting, and difficulty accessing or receiving victim services.

How to Work with Victims with Disabilities Consult disability agencies and victims with disabilities when devising your community's response to stalking. Collaborate with disability services agencies to provide training for criminal justice professionals and victim service providers on best practices for working with people with disabilities. Train disability rights workers to recognize and address stalking. Use targeted outreach and appropriate services (e.g., use inclusive language and symbols in organization materials and provide the local Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) with a current list of victim service hotlines). Observe Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. Compliance with the law helps victims with disabilities and protects government agencies and government-funded organizations from liability for discrimination.

Approximately 20 percent of non-institutionalized Americans have a disability.² And people with disabilities suffer alarming rates of victimization. Women with disabilities experience the highest rate of personal violence- violence at the hands of spouses, partners, boyfriends, family members, caregivers, and strangers-of any group in our society today.³ Of the 200 women with physical and cognitive disabilities who responded to a 2002 survey, 67 percent reported having experienced physical abuse, and 53 percent of the women reported having experienced sexual abuse.⁴ Some researchers believe that 90 percent of people with developmental disabilities will at some point in their lives be the victims of sexual assault and that only 3 percent of these crimes will be reported.⁵

Vulnerability to Stalking

Given the level of physical violence experienced by people with disabilities, as well as the established link between intimate partner violence and stalking,⁶ it is highly probable that people with disabilities experience significant levels of stalking. While the Stalking Resource Center has found little research to establish the prevalence of stalking among people with disabilities, our experience suggests that stalking is likely to occur in this population. In this article, we attempt to lay the groundwork for such research, to elicit feedback from providers who may have served such victims, and to explore the best ways to help them.

Offender Manipulation

People with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to stalking because they are sometimes perceived to be easier to control than other victims. "The balance of power in all abusive relationships shifts very subtly," says Debora L. Beck-Massey of the Domestic Violence Initiative for Women with Disabilities in Denver, Colorado, "so more and more of the control, decision making, and options slide toward the batterer's side." Abusers of people with disabilities often control victims' access to basic necessities such as food and transportation to increase their dependence.

If the relationships end, these abusers are particularly well equipped to stalk the victim. They have access to a significant amount of personal information, such as bank account numbers, passwords, and Social Security numbers, which they can use to take money from victims or to prevent them from accessing their funds. They are familiar with victims' work arrangements and any special transportation systems victims use. These controlling behaviors, as part of an overall pattern of conduct, produce substantial emotional distress and are likely to cause fear in the victim.

Protection Problems

Stalking victims often have great difficulty protecting themselves and their families. They may have to change their entire lives-move to a different community, change jobs, alter their physical appearance, and even change names-all to avoid their offender's next move. "For stalking victims with disabilities," said Beck- Massey, "the very systems they rely on for support-for transportation, financial support, or services-may increase their vulnerabilities." Ed used the SSDI system to track Anita because she relied on SSDI support for her children. A victim with a disability living in government-subsidized housing may find it impossible to move quickly, even to escape a dangerous situation, because of six- to twelve-month waiting periods for apartments in such facilities.

Barriers to Reporting and Receiving Services

Stalking victims with disabilities confront the same barriers to reporting the crime (such as fear of not being believed) that most victims face. In addition, victims with disabilities have to contend with physical or social isolation, impediments to communication or mobility, or physical or financial dependence on a caregiver who may also be the perpetrator.8 For example, a victim who is housebound because of her disability may never sufficiently escape her caregiver to be able to report her victimization to law enforcement.

Victims are also vulnerable to stalkers' exploiting their disabilities to avoid criminal justice intervention. For example, a stalker may escape being investigated as a suspect by posing as a concerned friend checking up on a victim. Or, if a victim has a developmental disability and an investigating officer finds two differing versions of events-one from a woman who seemed confused and another from a coherent, ostensibly concerned "friend" of the victim-the officer might be easily convinced that the victim was not victimized at all. Stalkers can also pressure victims to drop charges by threatening them in ways that, absent the context of a disability, might seem less malignant. For example, by canceling a victim's food delivery or transportation to a crucial doctor's appointment, a stalker can remind the victim that he can control her life.

Stalkers can also exploit the victims' reliance on assistive technologies, such as Text Telephone (TTY) machines and e-mail. For example, a stalker who is able to hack into the victim's e-mail or gain access to her TTY machine can pose as the victim to interfere with communications with her victim advocate or the police department (e.g., posing as the victim, the stalker requests that the police discontinue their investigation of the stalking case).

Identifying Needs and Providing Effective Services

For all stalking victims and victim advocates, recognizing the problem is half the battle. Criminal justice professionals and victim service providers must first know who in our communities may be at most risk for being victimized. Then, to improve their responses, they must identify the barriers to reporting crime and accessing services for these victims.

Conclusion

Victim advocates, criminal justice agencies, and disability rights workers should take a closer look at the complex and challenging needs of stalking victims with disabilities. Researchers would benefit from studying the incidence of stalking among these victims, and victim service providers and criminal justice professionals could use the resulting knowledge to improve their response to victims with disabilities.

The Stalking Resource Center would appreciate hearing from providers who have worked with such victims, and we welcome information on appropriate best practices, protocols, or policies. To share information with the SRC or to learn more about stalking, please contact us at src@ncvc.org.

1 The Stalking Resource Center (SRC) recognizes the unique culture of the deaf community and the desire of its members to be independently identified. However, for the purposes of this brief article, the SRC adopts the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) definition of an individual with a disability as "a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities,…who has a history or record of such an impairment, or …who is perceived by others as having such an impairment." Examples included in the ADA definition include orthopedic, visual, speech, and hearing impairments, as well as many other conditions.

2 U.S. Census Bureau, "Disability Status: 2000," Census 2000 Brief (March 2003), http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/ c2kbr-17.pdf, (Accessed October 31, 2005).

3W. Abramson et al., eds., "From the Editors," Impact: Feature Issue on Violence Against Women with Developmental or Other Disabilities 13, No. 3 (2000), http://ici.umn.edu/products/impact/ 133, (Accessed: October 31, 2005).

4 L.E. Powers and M. Oschwald, "Violence and Abuse Against People with Disabilities: Experiences, Barriers and Prevention Strategies," Center on Self-Determination, Oregon Institute on Disability and Development, Oregon Health and Science University, Citing: L.E. Powers, M.A. Curry, M. Oschwald, S. Maley, M. Saxton, and K. Eckels, "Barriers and Strategies in Addressing Abuse: A Survey of Disabled Women's Experiences," Journal of Rehabilitation 68, No.1 (2002): 4–13.

5 D. Sobsey and T. Doe, "Patterns of Sexual Abuse and Assault," Sexuality and Disability 9, No. 3 (1991): 243-259; and C. Tyiska, "Working with Victims of Crime with Disabilities," Office for Victims of Crime Bulletin, (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 1998).