Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland.
Faculty of Law, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland.
Behav Sci Law. 2022 Sep;40(5):699-714. doi: 10.1002/bsl.2590. Epub 2022 Sep 8.
Children are at particular risk when one parent is targeted by the other parent's stalking behaviors post-separation. In this article, we explore how court decisions position children when assessing fear, distress, and unlawfulness in cases of parental stalking. The data comprised 127 court decisions on stalking that involved a relationship (dating, cohabitation, or marriage), separation/divorce, and one or more children. Using discourse analysis, we identified four categories in how children were positioned: (1) children relegated to the background, (2) children's involvement recounted as part of the facts, (3) children's involvement assessed as relevant because it affected the parent, and (4) children as agents or victims in their own right. The findings highlight a significant risk of losing sight of children when the focus is on parents, and our concern is that this may also contribute to children not receiving the support they need.
当父母一方在分居后受到另一方的跟踪行为的针对时，孩子处于特别危险的境地。在本文中，我们探讨了法院在评估父母跟踪案件中的恐惧、痛苦和不法行为时如何定位孩子。数据包括 127 项关于涉及关系（约会、同居或婚姻）、分居/离婚以及一个或多个孩子的父母跟踪的法院判决。使用话语分析，我们确定了在如何定位孩子方面的四个类别：（1）孩子被置于背景中，（2）孩子的卷入被叙述为事实的一部分，（3）孩子的卷入被评估为相关，因为它影响了父母，（4）孩子作为自己的代理人或受害者。研究结果突出表明，当关注父母时，孩子有很大的风险被忽视，我们担心这也可能导致孩子得不到他们需要的支持。
