Brady Patrick Q, Nobles Matt R
1 Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX, USA.
2 University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA.
J Interpers Violence. 2017 Oct;32(20):3149-3173. doi: 10.1177/0886260515596979. Epub 2015 Jul 30.
Despite the growing body of scholarship on stalking victimization, the criminal justice system's response has been substantially understudied. Although scholars consider stalking to be a significant issue, its prevalence is not echoed in official data representing stalking arrests and convictions. The disparity between prevalence estimates and official data reinforces a "dark figure" of stalking that warrants further examination. To develop a better understanding of underreporting and/or underrecording, this exploratory study used official data from the Houston Police Department to examine police response to stalking. Findings indicated that, compared with other interpersonal crimes, incidents of stalking are dramatically underrecorded. Over an 8-year period, there were a total of 3,756 stalking calls for service, 66 stalking-related incident reports, and only 12 arrests for stalking. However, not one of the stalking calls for service generated a stalking-related incident report nor an arrest for stalking. Of the stalking calls for service that did generate an incident report, the large majority of the reports were classified as either harassment or a violation of a protective order. Furthermore, incident reports and arrests for stalking generally emerged from calls for service for harassment or terroristic threats. Implications for research and policy are discussed.
尽管关于跟踪骚扰受害者的学术研究越来越多，但刑事司法系统对此的反应却基本上未得到充分研究。尽管学者们认为跟踪骚扰是一个重大问题，但在代表跟踪骚扰逮捕和定罪情况的官方数据中却并未体现出其普遍性。普遍性估计与官方数据之间的差异强化了跟踪骚扰的“隐性数字”，这值得进一步研究。为了更好地理解报告不足和/或记录不足的情况，这项探索性研究使用了休斯顿警察局的官方数据来考察警方对跟踪骚扰的反应。研究结果表明，与其他人际犯罪相比，跟踪骚扰事件的记录严重不足。在8年时间里，共有3756起跟踪骚扰求助电话，66份与跟踪骚扰相关的事件报告，而跟踪骚扰逮捕仅有12起。然而，没有一通跟踪骚扰求助电话产生与跟踪骚扰相关的事件报告或跟踪骚扰逮捕。在确实产生事件报告的跟踪骚扰求助电话中，绝大多数报告被归类为骚扰或违反保护令。此外，跟踪骚扰的事件报告和逮捕通常来自骚扰或恐怖威胁求助电话。文中还讨论了对研究和政策的启示。
