Following the crime of stalking.

• Author: Jarret, Joseph G.
• Position: Florida

It has been called the crime of the nineties.(1) A crime that until recently was seldom reported or investigated. It is the crime of stalking, and it is no longer just the bane of celebrities and the wealthy. A recent media report indicated that as of the mid-1990's, there were more than 200,000 stalkers in America.(2) The prey of the aforementioned stalkers, like victims of domestic violence, come from all racial and ethnic groups and all socioeconomic backgrounds. The ways, methods, and motivations of stalkers are as varied as the human mind can muster, and victims suffer a broad range of indignities from harassing phone calls to death.

Into the Mind of the Stalker

The study of stalking is still in its infancy; however, several mental health experts have begun to classify stalkers into the following categories according to certain characteristics as well as typologies based upon the stalker's mental state. The most widely-referenced study was conducted by Vernon Gerberth who classified stalkers into two categories: the Psychopathic Personality Stalker and the Psychotic Personality Stalker.(3)

* Psychopathic Personality Stalker

This stalker has lost control over the victim (most commonly a spouse or lover) and intends to seriously harm the victim. This type of stalker insists on male dominance and exhibits a macho image in order to hide feelings of inferiority.

* Psychotic Personality Stalker

This stalker becomes obsessed with an unobtainable stranger and mounts a campaign of harassment to make the victim aware of his or her existence. They sincerely believe that the victim harbors intense feelings of love for them and would act upon that love or positively respond to the stalker's advances if it was not for the interference of outside factors.

Michael A. Zond has also researched stalkers, categorizing them by behavior characteristics.(4) Zond and his team classify stalkers into the following three distinct categories:

* Erotomania

This type of stalker has a delusional disorder in which the predominant theme of the delusion is that a celebrity or public figure of either the opposite gender or of a higher status is in love with the stalker. The victim does not know the stalker. The stalker remains convinced the victim loves him or her and would return the affection if not for some external influence. The duration of stalking and delusion usually lasts 124 months.

* Love Obsessional

Like the erotomaniac, this stalker believes that if the victim would simply acknowledge the stalker's existence, the victim would fall in love with the stalker. These stalkers only know their victims through the media. They usually engage in a campaign to make their existence known to the victim by writing, telephoning, or otherwise attempting to contact the victim, which lasts approximately 146 months.

* Simple Obsessional

Unlike the two previous categories, there was a prior relationship between the stalker and the intended victim. This relationship may have been a former spouse, employee, or neighbor, and in all cases the stalking began after the relationship had soured or there was a perception by the stalker of mistreatment. There have been other classifications of stalkers and convicted stalkers have been interviewed/examined by mental health professionals. The reasons or triggers that induce people to become stalkers is a body of mental health science that is presently evolving.

Florida Stalking Law in a Nutshell

F.S. [sections] 784.048, entitled Stalking; definitions...