Women Who Stalk

Although most stalking is committed by men, women are perpetrators in an estimated 12% of cases in community studies. These researchers compared 40 female stalkers with 150 male stalkers who had been referred to a forensic mental health clinic in Australia during an 8-year period.

Compared with male stalkers, females were significantly less likely to have histories of criminal offenses or substance abuse, to stalk strangers, or to progress to physical assaults. Women were significantly more likely than men to stalk same-sex victims (i.e., other women) and professional contacts (healthcare providers, teachers, or legal practitioners), to harass by phone rather than by shadowing their victims, and to be motivated by a desire for intimate relat…