Women as Victims: Domestic Violence, Intimate Partner Violence, and Stalking 

  • Domestic vs. Intimate Partner Violence
    • Domestic Violence: any criminal offense involving violence or physical harm committed by one family or household member against another
    • ex: parent and child, siblings, roommates
    • Intimate Partner Violence: involves the physical, verbal, emotional, economic, and/or sexual abuse against a romantic partner
    • romantic partners who are and aren’t living in the same household
  • IPV Stats
    • 25% of women and 11% of men experience IPV or intimate partner stalking within their lifetime
    • 14% of women and 4% of men have been injured by an intimate partner
    • IPV accounts for 15% of all reported violent crime
  • Legal History of IPV (New York)
    • 1962: Cases of domestic violence were handled in family court, making it nearly impossible for perpetrators to be convicted
    • 1976: first domestic violence shelter opens 
    • 1984: Martial rape is criminalized
    • 1994: Violence Against Women Act is created
    • federally criminalized domestic violence and sexual assault
    • 1999: Stalking is redefined as a form of abuse and recategorized as a felony
    • 1029: VAWA is reauthorized and upgraded to prohibit those convicted of prior abuse, assault, or stalking of a partner to own a firearm
  • Stalking: engaging in a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to fear of their safety or the safety of others and suffer substantial emotional distress
    • unwanted, repeated behaviors that are intended to surveil, monitor, threaten, and scare someone
    • examples
    • following another person, in-person or via technology
    • showing up at the person’s home or place of business
    • making harassing phone calls
    • leaving written messages, items, or gifts
    • vandalizing a person’s property
    • threatening someone or their family, friends, or pets
    • erotomania stalking: a delusional obsession with a public figure or someone out of the stalker’s reach
    • love obsessional stalking: stalking someone, often a complete stranger, with whom the stalker delusionally thinks they are in love
    • simple obsessional stalking: stalking someone the stalker has a prior or existing personal or romantic relationship with
    • common in situations involving IPV
    • statistics
    • 8% of women and 2% of men are stalked during their lives
    • among victims, 87% identified their stalker as male
    • most victims are young adults when they are stalked
    • 77% of female victims are stalked by someone they know (current of former spouses, partners they lived with, or former dates)
    • stalking and pop culture
    • often, the media portrays stalking as an extreme display of love and devotion
      • edward cullen, christian gray, ezra fitz
      • facebook stalking 
    • normalization can make it harder for victims to identify the harm they’re experiencing