Karl Roberts, a senior lecturer in forensic psychology at the University of Teeside, published the results of a study on indentifying predictive factors of physical violence in stalking by former romantic partners. The most common type of stalking involves former romantic partners.Dr. Roberts defined stalking as persistant, unwanted, fear-inducing attention, such as repeated phone calls, messages, face-to-face encounters, etc. The study cited a general frequency of violence toward stalking victims of 25% to 35%. The study indicates that the majority of the violence results in minor property or physical damage. Less than 2% of stalking victims are murdered by their stalker. The fear of violence has been found to cause significant harm to victims of stalking. Stalking by former romantic partners is significantly more likely to involve violence than stalking by strangers or acquaintances: the rate is more than 50%.
In studying predictive factors for violence, Dr. Roberts surveyed victims of former partner stalking. Dr. Roberts found the following factors to be significant predictory indicators of stalking violence:
- Direct threats of physical violence made during the course of the stalking
- Perpetrator's abuse of nonprescription drugs, and
- Perpetrator's jealousy toward the victim's relationships with others
Direct threats were found to be the strongest predictor of physical violence.
Dr. Roberts also studied whether violence (physical, sexual, or emotional) during the course of the relationship was a significant predictor of stalking violence, but found no statisical connection.
Compiled from: Roberts, Karl A., "Women's Experience of Violence During Stalking by Former Romantic Partners: Factors Predictive of Stalking Violence" Violence Against Women Vol. 11 No. 1, January 2005