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

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