Female victims of stalking.

This volume comprises a series of articles about stalking, written by members of the Modena Group on Stalking (MGS).

Stalking is a complex pattern of behaviours in which one individual inflicts upon another repeated unwanted communications and/or intrusions which give rise to distress and fear in the victim.

In itself, this common form of interpersonal violence often causes psychological damage to victims, who are in the majority female: furthermore, it is associated with physical aggression. MGS researchers address stalking from a multidisciplinary and international perspective, dealing with diverse issues such as conceptual and definitional problems, problems in prosecuting this crime through specific laws, the estimation of stalking prevalence, psychological consequences for the victims and the psychological characteristics of stalkers.

The authors deal also with the risk of physical aggression in stalking and the role of police intervention.

Special attention is given to the key role of helping professionals, whose early recognition of stalking and rapid intervention are central, both in terms of reducing sequelae in the victim and of managing and treating the stalker. The book reports on the results of a multi-centre research project, aimed at exploring the recognition and perception of stalking cases by police officers and general practitioners in the four Countries in which the MGS members work: Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Italy.

The Modena Group on Stalking (MGS) is a multidisciplinary European stalking research group, comprising psychiatrists, psychologists and lawyers. Its members are: Paolo Curci, Laura De Fazio, Salvatore Luberto (Project coordinator), Cesare Secchi, Gian Maria Galeazzi, Giovanni Neri, Geert Vervaeke, Anne Groenen, Paul Emmelkamp, Jan-Henk Kamphuis, Frank Farnham, David James.

The MGS maintains a website: http://stalking.medlegmo.unimo.it