|
creating
change |
understanding
disability |
understanding
deaf culture |
addressing
accessibility |
understanding
violence |
responding
to violence |
safety alert
If you are in danger, please use a safer computer, call 911 or your local hotline or call the National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-SAFE (7233 voice), 1-800-787-3224 (tty). There is always a computer trail, but you can click ESCAPE to leave the site quickly.
You are here: home>understanding violence>stalking>
Dynamics
In General
Stalking is an issue that affects all races and can affect both women and men. Women constitute 78% of victims/survivors and 87% of the time perpetrators are men. 1 In addition, many stalking cases start at the end of a relationship and are carried out by people who seem to have otherwise normal behavior. Contrary to the impression given by some highly publicized cases, survey evidence indicates that the majority of women are stalked by men whom they know, including current or former partners, spouses, boyfriends, family members or caregivers. 2
For Women with Disabilities
Stalking victims/survivors with disabilities and Deaf victims/survivors confront the experiences and same barriers that other victims/survivors face. In addition, however, people with disabilities and Deaf people have to contend with physical or social isolation, impediments to communication or mobility, and financial dependence to a much more severe degree. Moreover, a stalker may use a woman’s functional limitation to intimidate and disrupt her life by:
- following her without her knowing—she may not be able to hear, see, or realize his presence;
- taking advantage of her not knowing his hiding places or other potentially dangerous places;
- taking advantage of the difficulty she might have getting to or finding a phone or escape route;
- damaging costly assistive technologies;
- manipulating the content of her communication devices, such as erasing emails, giving out false information, or impersonating her over TTY or email;
- cornering her in an area she can’t easily escape from;
- confusing her around the details of the stalking, or the former relationship;
- getting her to use substances as a way to coerce her;
- convincing her that she’s worthless and not attractive to other men;
- chasing her or follow her constantly, until she is too tired to fight back;
- taking advantage of her specific limitation.
There has been very little research done around the issue of stalking, but there has been even less work done on how women with disabilities and Deaf women are differently affected by stalkers and stalking activity. The Stalking Resource Center addresses this lack of research and the challenges women with disabilities and Deaf women face on their website in the article, "Victims with Disabilities Face Unique Challenges."
For more information on stalking, check out the Stalking Resource Center 
, part of the National Center for Victims of Crime.
1Tjaden, Patricia, and Nancy Thoennes. Stalking in America: Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey. National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Washington, D.C. (1998).
2Ibid.