Journal of Family Violence - Virtual Issue

Title: Family Violence and Stalking: A National Stalking Awareness Month Virtual Issue

Authors: L.B. Klein, MSW, MPA; PhD Candidate and Injury and Violence Prevention Fellow; School of Social Work, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Fellow, Prevention Innovations Research Center, University of New Hampshire

Corresponding Author: L.B. Klein, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Social Work, 325 Pittsboro Street CB #3550, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, (919) 533-7380, lbklein@unc.edu

This January marks the 16th annual National Stalking Awareness Month in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, one in six women and one in 17 men in the U.S. have been stalked. While transgender individuals experience elevated forms of interpersonal violence broadly, there is limited information about their experiences of stalking specifically. Despite high rates of stalking, it is often overlooked both as a separate social problem and public health issue and its connection to intimate partner violence, sexual assault, and other forms of family violence.

Stalking is also an under-researched area in the U.S. and globally. Therefore, the Journal of Family Violence (JOFV) has taken two steps to highlight this critical issue and encourage further understanding of and research on stalking. First, we have assembled this virtual issue, which includes research published in the last two decades in JOFV on stalking. Second, we have a special issue of new stalking research that is currently in development and will be released in the forthcoming year, which is guest edited by Dr. Bethany Backes, Dr. Laura Johnson, and Dr. Judy Postmus.  

The twelve articles included in this virtual issue of JOFV provide critical findings related to stalking patterns, contexts, dynamics, predictors, and consequences as well as key issues such as the use of technology to stalk, stalking as a form of intimate partner violence, and how victims plan for their safety. JOFV hopes there will be greater attention from researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to understanding stalking and developing and evaluating interventions to prevent and respond to it. 

Articles available to read for free through February 28

• “Power and Control Dynamics in Prestalking and Stalking Situations” 

          Authors: Mary P. Brewster 

• Post-Relationship Stalking: The Experience of Victims with and Without History of Partner Abuse

         Authors: Célia Ferreira and Marlene Matos 

• Looking into the Day-To-Day Process of Victim Safety Planning 

         Authors: TK Logan and Robert Walker 

• Stalking in College Student Dating Relationships: A Descriptive Investigation 

         Authors: Ryan C. Shorey, Tara L. Cornelius & Catherine Strauss 

• Relationship and Individual Characteristics as Predictors of Unwanted Pursuit 

         Authors: Farrah Tassy & Barbara Winstead