Brian H. Spitzberg

Cyberstalking and the technologies of interpersonal terrorism

Despite extensive popular press coverage of the dark side of the internet, apparently no social scientific research has yet been published on the topic of cyberstalking. This report summarizes three pilot studies conducted in the process of developing a satisfactory factorially complex measure of cyberstalking victimization, and then investigates the incidence of such victimization, and its interrelationships to obsessive relational intrusion. Findings indicate that cyberstalking is experienced by a nontrivial proportion of the sample, and that there are small but generally consistent relationships between facets of cyberstalking and spatially based stalking. In addition, the results suggested that only interactional forms of coping were related consistently with forms of cyberstalking.

The Tactical Topography of Stalking Victimization and Management

A meta-analysis of 108 samples across 103 studies of stalking-related phenomena, representing almost 70,000 participants, reveals an average prevalence across studies of 23.5% for women and 10.5% for men, with an average duration of almost 2 years. The average proportion of female victims across studies was 75%, and 77% of stalking emerged from some form of prior acquaintance, with 49%originating from romantic relationships. New typologies of stalking behavior, coping responses to stalking, and symptomology due to stalking victimization are reported. Across 42 studies, the average physical violence incidence was 33%, and 17 studies produced an average sexual violence incidence of slightly greater than 10%. A summary of 32 studies of restraining orders indicated that they are violated an average of 40% of the time and are perceived as followed by worse events almost 21% of the time.

Obsessive relational intrusion: incidence, perceived severity, and coping.

Two studies investigated the phenomenon of obsessive relational intrusion (ORI), defined as repeated and unwanted pursuit and invasion of one’s sense of physical or symbolic privacy by another person, either stranger or acquaintance, who desires and/or presumes an intimate relationship. In Study 1, we sought to identify the incidence of a broad range of relationally intrusive behaviors, to identify the coping responses employed by victims of ORI, and to assess the associations between coping responses and ORI behaviors. Study 2 assessed the perceived degree of severity of ORI behaviors. Results revealed that each of 63 ORI behaviors was experienced by 3-78% of respondents in three different samples. Factor analysis revealed four types of ORI behavior: pursuit, violation, threat, and hyper-intimacy. Responses for coping with ORI consisted of interaction, protection, retaliation, and evasion. Virtually all intrusive behaviors were perceived to be annoying. Some types of ORI behaviors were perceived to be relatively more threatening, upsetting and privacy-invading than others. Although sex differences were not observed for the incidence of ORI or coping, women consistently perceived ORI behaviors to be more annoying, upsetting, threatening, and privacy-invading than did men.

Exploring the interactional phenomenon of stalking and obsessive relational intrusion

Obsessive relational intrusion (ORI), and its more extreme relative, stalking, are significant social problems. However, to date, most research is relatively crude and anecdotal in nature. Further, most of the stalking literature has focused on aspects of the perpetrators rather than characteristics of the victims. This study sought to examine the nature and extent of victimization, employing new measures of ORI and stalking developed by Spitzberg and Cupach (1997). Multiple victimization factors were examined to ascertain the characteristics of obsessive intrusion victims and to analyze the relationship between victimization, symptomology, and coping strategies. The ORI‐VSF (victim short form) was administered to 69 male and 93 female college students. Exploratory factor analysis indicated two factors, suggestive of general pursuit and aggression. Analyses indicate that males and females were not differentially victimized. Further, coping responses were more predictive of symptomology than amount of vict...

The tactical face of stalking

Abstract The empirical literature on stalking was reviewed, and found wanting for greater descriptive detail of the process of stalking. For this study, fifty-five stalking case files from the city attorneys Domestic Violence Unit in a major western metropolitan area were coded for over one hundred variables each. Multiple victimization factors were examined to ascertain the characteristics of stalking victims and to analyze the relationship between victimization, symptomology, and coping strategies. Results indicate that the most common coping strategy was “hung up when they called,” and that victims reported feeling “threatened” more than any other symptom. In addition, as the number and/or breadth of perpetrator tactics increased, the victims experienced more symptoms. A history of violence was reported in the majority of the case files, and the presence of restraining orders had a strong correlation with victimization. Implications for refining current theory and research on stalking and strategies for successful intervention were examined.

Obsessive relational intrusion, coping, and sexual coercion victimization

Both obsessive relational intrusion (ORI) and sexual coercion can be viewed as unwanted forms of excessive relational intrusion. ORI is a pattern of persistent invasion of anothers sense of privacy for the purpose of advancing a relationship that the target of pursuit does not desire. This study examined first if ORI and sexual coercion victimization tend to correspond, and second, if coping responses tended to correspond with both forms of victimization. Both expectations were strongly supported. Implications for formulating better models of victimization are discussed.

Once Upon a Midnight Stalker: A Content Analysis of Stalking in Films

Media portrayals of crime have been linked to biased information processing and beliefs about society and personal risks of victimization. Much of this research has either focused on relatively holistic analyses of media consumption, or on the analysis of elements of only a few types of crime (e.g., murder, rape, assault). Research to date has overlooked how media portray stalking in interpersonal relationships. This study content analyzed 51 mainstream movies with prominent stalking themes to compare and contrast such depictions with the actual scientific data about stalking. By considering victim variables, stalker variables, relational variables, stalking behavior variables, victim response variables, and justice variables, this analysis illustrates how films have portrayed stalking as more gender equivalent, briefer, more deadly and sexualized, and more criminally constituted in stalker history and actions compared to actual stalking cases. Implications for the cultivation of attitudes about real-world stalking behaviors and recommendations for further research are discussed.

Cyberstalking as (Mis)matchmaking

Online technologies, such as online matchmaking services, are increasingly becoming a normal and normative medium through which relationships are initiated, developed, maintained, and ended. This chapter examines the phenomenon of stalking and obsessive relational intrusion, with special emphasis on cyberstalking as one variant that is particularly likely in the online matchmaking environment. To elaborate these processes, the interrelationship of impression management theory, socioevolutionary theory, and relational goal pursuit theory are examined as they inform an understanding of relationship matchmaking, and mismatchmaking, in the online environment.