April 10th, 2020

The Health Literacy on Stalking !

Did you know, that young adults particularly between the ages of 18 and 24, have the highest rate of stalking victimization? I know, we don’t really talk about it, but stalking is a thing. It happens, everywhere. Whether you want to believe it or not. In Robin Hattersley-Gray’s article, he says that the rates of stalking on college campuses are higher than in the general population; similar to the rates of sexual assault. That’s crazy! The place you thought was the safest, isn’t. People are being watched and followed, most probably don’t even know it.

Stalking can be described as any unwanted contact such as unwanted phone calls, voicemails, text messages, spying, sending unwanted gifts, letters, emails, and showing up unannounced to the victim’s location or waiting for them at a particular location. Many of us probably have been the victim of stalking, just never noticed it or took it seriously. Like “Oh this person just really likes you” or “Oh you’ve got them sprung” No. No, it’s not cute. Why do we normalize this or fetishize over this? We see it in movies and on social media, where a person is blowing up their partner’s cell phone asking them where they are and such. It’s not normal, and no one should ever want a relationship with anything like that.
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A lot of people may ask, “Well is it really stalking? Or are they just immature?” Good question, let’s talk about it. People in their adolescence have their crushes, a person they fawn over and put up a picture of them in their locker. We’ve all done it, right? When Justin Bieber came to the light, we all went CRAZY for him, am I right? Don’t be ashamed, you know you had a poster of him somewhere, whether it was in your locker, above your bed in your room, or maybe as a bookmark. This is normal during that age, but as you grow into a young adult your emotional maturity is developed. And as a young adult, you know what actions are appropriate and what is not.

Some stalking statistics include:

1 in 6 women and 1 in 19 men in the United States have experienced stalking during their lifetime. 13% of college women were stalked during a one six to nine-month period. Approximately one in four stalking victims reported some form of cyber-stalking such as email or instant messaging. Electronic monitoring was used to stalk 1 in 13 victims (i.e. GPS monitoring, bugs, phone tapping, or video). 80% of campus stalking victims knew their stalker. The average duration of stalking is 1.8 years. During a 12-month period, an estimated 14 in every 1,000 persons age 18 or older were victims of stalking.

Young adults need to bear in mind that this can happen to them. We sometimes feel as if something like this can never happen to us. “Not me,” we think that we’re immune or invincible to all of the bad things we hear about on television or through social media. So now that this message out maybe now, you can understand the seriousness of stalking because it can definitely, happen to you.

References
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 F. (2012, June 24). Stalking on Campus: A Silent Epidemic. Retrieved March 08, 2018, from https://www.campussafetymagazine.com/safety/stopping-stalkers/ 

Pierre-Louis, R. (2015, September 25). Stalking Goes Beyond the Silver Screen and 'The Perfect Guy'. Retrieved March 08, 2018, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/rosemonde-pierrelouis/stalking-goes-beyond-the-silver-screen-and-the-perfect-guy_b_8196760.html 

Stalking. (n.d.). Retrieved February 27, 2018, from https://www.justice.gov/ovw/stalking 

Stalking Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved March 08, 2018, from http://sites.jcu.edu/vpac/pages/educate-yourself/stalking/stalking-statistics/ 

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