Stalking & Sexual Assault

Resources Available on Stalking and Link to Sexual Assault

The mission of The Stalking Resource Center (SRC) is to raise national awareness of stalking and to encourage the development and implementation of multidisciplinary responses to stalking in local communities across the country. The SRC defines stalking as "a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear." According to the SRC stalking fact sheet, 1,006,970 women and 370,990 men are stalked annually in the United States.

The Stalking Resource Center (SRC) is an national resource that provides training, technical assistance and an Information Clearinghouse. The Center's excellent website provides resources for professionals and victims of stalking such as fact sheets, brochures, federal and state stalking laws and training materials. SRC staff offer training events on topics that include Using Technology to Stalk, Threat Assessment, Safety Planning, Stalking: Relevance, Lethality and Impact and Stalking and Sexual Assault.

The SRC training on stalking and sexual assault clearly and methodically develops the link between the two crimes. Using current research and victim testimony, the training highlights the stalking behaviors engaged in by rapists.

Rapists routinely engage in following, surveillance, information gathering and voyeurism prior to a sexual assault. After an assault, the rapist frequently threatens the victim, attempts to frame the incident (e.g. thinks and talks about the incident as if it were consensual), and maintains social contact.

Thirty-one percent of women stalked by a current or former intimate partner are also sexually assaulted by that partner. Research indicates that the typical rapist, stranger and non-stranger, premeditates and plans his attack and uses multiple strategies to make the victim vulnerable such as alcohol or increasing levels of violence. FBI research with incarcerated rapists revealed that the rapists picked victims based on observation (voyeurism) and stalked several women at a time waiting for an opportunity to commit a sexual assault.

Victims that are aware of the stalking and sexual violence link find a context for their experience and have it validated. Advocates can provide information on the opportunities available for holding the offender accountable, such as increasing the criminal charges, filing a stalking protective order, and crime specific safety planning.

Florida Council Against Sexual Violence staff have been trained by SRC to conduct the Stalking and Sexual Assault workshop. If you are a certified rape crisis center in Florida and would be interested in attending a training, please contact Grace Frances or Donna Brown.

January is Stalking Awareness Month and many activities and resources are available on the SRC website for centers that would like to be involved with stalking awareness events. To see how much you know about stalking, check out their stalking quiz.