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Stalking is a significant social issue. The inconsistency as to what defines stalking has resulted in the creation of different methods to measure the crime. However, there has been minimal work done that assesses the severity of individual stalking behaviors. The aim of the present study was to assess the level of stalking behavior in terms of severity within a randomly selected sample of 924 cases from the database of the National Stalking Helpline. Item response theory analyses were used to assist in developing a scale that displays the ranking order of each stalking behavior. These analyses were also used to examine whether the stalking behavioral items created a single continuum of severity of stalking. Results indicated that 16 stalking behavioral items of the 28 items present in the National Stalking Helpline, best represented the severity of stalking. Unwanted communication behaviors such as text messages and phone calls were located at the lower end of the severity scale, whereas criminal damage and death threats were mapped on the higher end of the continuum. The findings also revealed that the 16 items categorized under 6 factors. The findings of the present study provide many implications for stalking agency professionals and criminal justice responses.

Stalking can be defined as a pattern of repeated, unwanted behaviors by one person to another. These behaviors may take the form of communicative intrusion, third-party contact, and physical or sexual assault. The individual stalking behaviors experienced by victims have been found to differ in every case, specifically dependent on their stalker-victim relationship. Recent tragedies have shown that the police force generally underestimates the risk of ex-intimate stalking and harassment behaviors. This study aims to identify patterns of stalking behaviors from a victim's perspective, specifically, whether there are any patterns of behavior among the ex-intimate stalkers, in comparison with acquaintance or stranger stalkers. Information from the accounts of individuals who had reported unwanted experiences as a result of one of three stalker-victim relationships (ex-intimate, acquaintance, or stranger) was extracted from the National Stalking Helpline database. Analyses were conducted on a sample of 1,626 victims' reports. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple logistic regressions were conducted to establish any common patterns of behavior among the subgroups of stalkers and to ascertain which behaviors increased the odds of being categorized as an ex-intimate stalker. Results indicated that ex-intimate stalkers presented considerably more behaviors than acquaintance or stranger stalkers; some of which included third-party contact, criminal damage, physical assault, and sexual assault. Results also indicated that ex-intimate stalkers presented more severe behaviors than the other subgroups. The majority of stalking behaviors were found to produce a statistically significant predictive contribution to being classed as an ex-intimate stalker. The findings in this study highlight that common misconception surrounding ex-intimate stalking still exists at every level of the Criminal Justice System. Results and implications for future research are discussed.

As with other sexual offenders, sexual homicide perpetrators can be reluctant to talk about their criminal behavior. Therefore, in homicide cases, forensic practitioners frequently rely on crime scene information to identify any sexual behavior associated with the offense. This study aims to identify objective and readily available crime scene information, alongside information about victims and perpetrators, based on 65 cases from England and Wales in the United Kingdom of men convicted of homicide who had committed a non-serial sexual homicide and 64 cases of men convicted of homicide where the available evidence indicated that it was a non-serial non-sexual homicide. Chi-square tests and logistic regression were used to analyze the data. There were few differences in terms of demographic information and criminal histories between the two perpetrator groups. There were crime scene indicators supporting the use of Ressler et al.'s definition of sexual homicide. The victims of sexual homicide were generally found in their home with the lower half of the body exposed and with evidence of vaginal sex. Furthermore, extreme injuries and strangulation were more frequent in sexual homicides. Use of weapon was associated with a non-sexual homicide. Victims of sexual homicide were as likely to know the perpetrator as not. Potential benefits of the characteristics reported to investigators and forensic practitioners tasked with identifying sexual homicides are discussed and areas for further research suggested.