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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
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