National Review of Stalking Laws and Implementation Practices in the United States, 1998-2001

This study was designed to clarify the status of stalking
laws and their implementation needs. To accomplish this, the principal
investigator conducted a survey of police and prosecutor agencies
across the country to determine how stalking laws were being
implemented. While there had been significant federal support for
state and local agencies to adopt anti-stalking laws and implement
anti-stalking initiatives, no comprehensive review of the status of
such efforts had been done. Thus, there had been no way of knowing
what additional measures might be needed to enhance local
anti-stalking efforts. Two national surveys on stalking were
conducted. The first survey of 204 law enforcement agencies (Part 1,
Initial Law Enforcement Survey Data) and 222 prosecution offices (Part
3, Initial Prosecutor Survey Data) in jurisdictions with populations
over 250,000 was conducted by mail in November of 1998. The survey
briefly asked what special efforts the agencies had undertaken against
stalking, including special units, training, or written policies and
procedures. A replication of the first national survey was conducted
in November of 2000. Part 2, Follow-Up Law Enforcement Survey Data,
contains the follow-up data for law enforcement agencies and Part 4,
Follow-Up Prosecutor Survey Data, contains the second survey data for
prosecutors. Parts 1 to 4 include variables about the unit that
handled stalking cases, types of stalking training provided, written
policies on stalking cases, and whether statistics were collected on
stalking and harassment. Parts 2 and 4 also include variables about
the type of funding received by agencies. Part 4 also contains
variables about other charges that might be filed in stalking cases,
such as harassment, threats, criminal trespass, and protection order
violation.