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51 Crime & Delinquency 3 (2005)

handle is hein.journals/cadq51 and id is 1 raw text is: Criminalizing Attractions: Perceptions of Stalking and the Stalker Patrick Kinkade Ronald Burns Angel Ilarraza Fuentes In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the conceptualization ofthepredatory stalker came to the forefront of the criminal concerns imagined by the American public. With this grow- ing public concern and the associated media coverage, legislation designed to enhance punishments against those who might stalk became a political asset and a significant plankfor reelection campaigns. Adequate definition for the phenomena, however has yet tobe established, and idiosyncratic application ofthe law at the policing level remains a problem. This study works toward providing a better definition ofthe problem from the public's perspective. Variables significantto the definition ofthe problem were identified and used in survey work to assess their importance in the individual's interpretation of the stalking label. Several of these variables are significantly tied to the individual's willingness to ascribe a stalking label to a given behavioral transaction. Keywords: stalking; stalkers; perception; media The 1989 death of Rebecca Schaeffer captured national attention and focused social concern on the issue of criminal stalking (Coleman, 1997). Schaeffer was a young actress who was shot to death by an obsessed fan, Robert Bardo, at her apartment in California. The media coverage of this unquestionable tragedy was extensive and far reaching. Other murders shar- ing commonalities in relation to the assailant or criminal circumstance were soon associated with Schaeffer's killing (Dawsey & Malnic, 1989). By the early 1990s, initial and more localized concerns over this newly labeled type of criminality spread onto a national stage (Holmes, 1993; Jenkins, 1994). The nature, content, and frequency of the media's coverage of stalking cases have arguably led to a public alarm about stalking that is recognizable in other relatively recent social panics about specific types of crime (e.g., PATRICK KINKADE: Department of Sociology, Criminal Justice and Anthropology, Texas Christian University. RONALD BURNS: Department of Sociology, Criminal Justice and Anthropology, Texas Christian University. ANGEL ILARRAZA FUENTES: Department of Sociology, Criminal Justice and Anthropology, Texas Christian University. Points of view of the authors do not represent the view of the National Institute of Justice. CRIME & DELINQUENCY, Volume 51 Number 1 January 2005 3-25 DOI: 10.1177/0011128703262462 0 2005 Sage Publications 3

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