Allissa Marquez

PROBLEMATIC APPROACH OF LEGISLATORS Differentiating Stalking From Isolated Incidents

The relative absence of political figure targets from stalking research is problematic for law enforcement personnel challenged with distinguishing cases representing a onetime contact from those that continue or escalate. Accordingly, this study compared solitary cases of problematic approach with stalking and intrusive harassment of legislators using 15 offender, contact, and motivation variables. Results revealed a significant model that correctly reclassified 85% of the single-approach cases and 50% of the stalking cases. Significant risk factors emerged that highlighted the persistent, focused, and multifaceted pursuit of political figure stalkers and intrusive harassers. More generally, results underscore the superior utility of contact and motivational variables for discriminating groups and the need for appropriate comparison groups when describing stalkers across contexts.

College Student Reporting Responses to Hypothetical and Actual Safety Concerns

ABSTRACT Campus violence prevention often includes proactively reducing crime through noticing and resolving concerning situations. Within these efforts, interventions aimed at enhancing reporting have been considered necessary. The current study explored several reporting influences on college students’ responses to hypothetical and actual campus safety concerns. Students were unwilling to report most (i.e., 52%) vignettes of pathway behavior, and most students who witnessed campus safety concerns did not report (i.e., 87%). Students who witnessed several concerning behaviors from a nonfriend perpetrator tended to be more willing to report, especially if personally victimized and understanding the violence risk associated with pathway behavior. Analyses supported campus-wide exhibitions of the dangerousness of various pathway behaviors and the fair, flexible authority problem solving available to struggling students.