Don’t Underestimate Dangerousness Of Female Stalkers, Study Urges

There are far fewer female stalkers than male ones—only 12 percent to 13 percent of all stalkers, by some counts. But how do female stalkers compare with their male counterparts? Are they just as predatory and dangerous?

The answer is yes, according to three authorities—Paul Mullen, M.D., a professor of forensic psychiatry at Monash University in Clayton, Victoria, Australia, and Rosemary Purcell and Michele Pathe, also of Monash University (Psychiatric News, June 15, 2001). They reported their results in the December American Journal of Psychiatry.

Mullen and his coworkers decided to obtain subjects for their study from a community forensic mental health clinic that specializes in the assessment and management of both stalkers and the stalked. Referrals to the clinic come mostly through the courts, community correctional services, the police, and medical practitioners.

Mullen and his colleagues defined stalking for the purpose of their study as persistent (duration of at least four weeks) and repeated (10 or more) attempts to intrude on or communicate with a victim who perceived the behavior as unwelcome and fear provoking. This was an intentionally conservative definition.

Mullen and his team selected 190 stalkers from the clinic who met their definition—150 males and 40 females. They then gathered demographic, psychiatric, and stalking-behavior information for the subjects and compared it on the basis of gender.

The male and female stalkers did not differ in terms of age, the researchers found; the mean age for both was 37 or 38 years. Nor did the two groups of stalkers differ in marital status, employment status, or diagnostic profiles—many in both groups had delusional disorders, personality disorders, morbid infatuations, and so forth. (Male and female stalkers also tended to use similar methods of harassment, except that female stalkers favored the phone, and male stalkers physical pursuit.)

Contrary to popular assumption, the female stalkers were no less likely than their male counterparts to threaten their victims or to attack their person or property. For instance, one female stalker damaged the sports car of her victim, her former fiancé. Another painted obscene messages on the fence of her victim’s home. Nine of the 40 female stalkers assaulted their victims, and the nature of the assaults did not differ much from that of the male stalkers, except that the women did not commit any sexual assaults.

“There is no reason to presume that the impact of being stalked by a female would be any less devastating than that of a man,” Mullen and his coworkers wrote in their report.

In contrast, the investigators discovered, there were some differences between the male and female stalkers—for one, choice of victim. With only two exceptions, the female stalkers focused on those with whom they had professional contact, especially psychiatrists, psychologists, and family physicians, although teachers and legal professionals were occasional targets. Male stalkers, in contrast, pursued a broad range of victims—not just professionals, but prior intimate partners, acquaintances, or strangers. Moreover, whereas female stalkers were just as likely to pursue women as men, male stalkers were more inclined to pursue women.

Finally, both the females and males engaged in stalking because they felt rebuffed, wanted to take revenge, or thought that stalking would help them get a date. But significantly more female stalkers wanted to establish an intimate, loving relationship with the person they pursued.

The study was financed by a postgraduate award to Purcell from the federal government of Australia.

The report, “A Study of Women Who Stalk,” is posted on the Web at ajp.psychiatryonline.org under the December 2001 issue. ▪