Anyone can be stalked. However, certain factors—for example, gender and age—appear to increase the risk. Note: In the remaining sections, the term ‘stalking’ is used to include both stalking and harassment, as national surveys utilize the broader definition in collecting data.
- About 1 in 6 women and 1 in 17 men in the United States have been victims of stalking during their lifetimes (Smith et al., 2018). In West Virginia, 1 in 6 women and 1 in 15 men have been stalked during their lifetimes (Smith et al., 2017).
- More than 1/2 of female victims and more than 1/3 of male victims are first stalked before the age of 25 (Smith et al., 2018; Black et al., 2011).
- Many victims experienced their first stalking victimization between ages 18 and 24, about 1 in 3 females and more than 1 in 4 males (Smith et al., 2018). This fact is especially relevant to colleges, as many college campuses are ideal environments for stalking as they are like closed communities, where class schedules and other campus activities can be easily monitored (Fisher et al., 2000). Over 4% of college students reported stalking victimization since enrolling at their college (Cantor et al., 2015). Students who are transgender, genderqueer, nonconforming, questioning, or with another identity report the highest rates, followed by female undergraduates, graduate/professional females, male undergraduate students, and graduate/professional males.
- However, stalking victimization is not a crime that only affects young adults. Over half of stalked males and nearly half of stalked females first experienced stalking at age 25 or older, and a little more than 1 in 5 of stalked females and nearly 1 in 8 stalked males were under 18 when they were first stalked (Smith et al., 2018).
There are also differences in prevalence of stalking victimization across races/ethnicities in the United States. For example, Smith et al. (2017) found:
- American Indian/Alaska Native women and multiracial women experience the highest rates of stalking during their lifetimes, at an estimated 28% and 25.7% respectively. An estimated 16.3% of non-Hispanic white women experienced stalking during their lifetimes, and the prevalence of stalking for non-Hispanic black and Hispanic women was an estimated 16.2% and 14.5% respectively. The estimate for Asian and Pacific Islander women was7.6%.
- Among men in the U.S., an estimated 7.5% of multiracial men experienced stalking during their lifetimes, as did an estimated 7.1% of non-Hispanic black men, 6.2% of Hispanic men, and 5% of non-Hispanic white men. Estimates for other racial/ethnic groups of men are not reported because case counts were too small to produce a reliable estimate.
Race and ethnicity of stalking victims in West Virginia are overwhelmingly non-Hispanic white women and men (Smith et al., 2017). This is consistent with the state’s demographics, where non-Hispanic white individuals comprise the vast percentage of the WV population.