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27 J. Forensic Psychiatry & Psych. 1 (2016)

handle is hein.journals/jnlofncpy27 and id is 1 raw text is: 


The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology, 2016              1  Routledge
Vol. 27, No. 1, 1-20, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14789949.2015.1094118  * Taylor&FrancisGroup







Stalking,   harassment and aggressive/intrusive behaviours
towards general practitioners: (2) associated factors,
motivation, mental illness and effects on GPs

Leah  Woostera, David  V. Jamesab* and  Frank R. Farnhama

aNational Stalking Clinic, London, UK; bTheseus LLP London, UK

(Received 22 May 2015; accepted 1 September 2015)

      Seventy per cent of general practitioners (GPs) were found in an earlier
      study to have been subject to aggressive/intrusive behaviours by patients,
      with nearly 20%  stalked and 20% harassed. Using the same  sample, an
      exploration was undertaken of patterns of behaviour, patient characteristics,
      including mental illness and motivation, GP characteristics, and effects
      upon  them of aggression/intrusion. There were significant differences in
      patterns of behaviour between stalking and harassment. Nearly half the
      patients involved were suspected to be mentally ill, including 54.5% of
      stalking cases. Stalking was significantly associated with intimacy-seeking
      motivation, and harassment with resentful motivation. No significant asso-
      ciations emerged between sex of patients or GPs and aggressive/intrusive
      behaviours. Measures  of GP  time-at-risk were associated with higher
      prevalence of individual behaviours. GPs' responses to aggressive/intrusive
      behaviours included increasing security and changing routines, with small
      minorities afraid to go out or be at home alone, and a proportion experi-
      encing adverse effects on personal relationships.

      Keywords:   stalking; harassment; aggression; general practitioner; post-
      traumatic


Introduction
At least six studies of aggressive behaviour towards  general practitioners (GPs)
have  included stalking as a questionnaire item  amongst  lists of other intrusive
and  inappropriate behaviours  (Forrest, Herath, McRae,   & Parker, 2011;  Gale,
Arroll, &  Coverdale,  2006;  Magin,   Joy, Ireland, Adams,   &   Sibbritt, 2005;
Magin   et  al., 2011;  Miedema,   Hamilton,   Lambert-Lanning, et al., 2010;
Miedema,   Hamilton,   Tatemichi, et al., 2010;  Tolhurst et al., 2003). Yet, in
these studies, stalking was not  a principal focus and it was  left to the survey
respondents  to identify behaviours as stalking, although there is evidence  that
GPs   'contextualise' their patients behaviours (Elston, Gabe,  Denney,  Lee,  &
O'Beirne,  2002), rather than  categorising them  objectively. In addition, there


© 2015 Taylor & Francis


*Corresponding author. Email: david.james5@ntlworld.com

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