Stalking: social and psychological aspects of a growing phenomenon

Journal title PSICOBIETTIVO
Author/s Maddalena Cialdella, Paola de Cesare
Publishing Year 2019 Issue 2019/1 Language Italian
Pages 13 P. 76-88 File size 148 KB
DOI 10.3280/PSOB2019-001007
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The proposed article explores the psychosocial context and attempts to define the phenomenon of stalking, as more and more attention is given to it in the current cultural scene. The main theoretical contributions that outline this complex relational phenomenon are analyzed, highlighting the characteristics of the conduct of a persecutory activity and the trauma experienced by the victim. The article then proceeds to summarize the types of persecutors, the violent conduct and its translation into an "obsessive hunt for a prey", the victim’s vulnerabilities and the psychological damage created by the crime. Through a clinical exemplification, we propose some effective strategies for the treatment of this phenomenon.

Keywords: Harassment and Relational Obsessions; Psychosocial Aspects; Types of Persecutors; Vulnerability of the Victim and Psychological Damage; Multidisciplinary Interventions.

  1. Baldry A.C., Roia F. (2011) Strategie efficaci per il contrasto ai maltrattamenti e allo stalking. Aspetti giuridici e criminologici, FrancoAngeli, Milano
  2. Bateson G. (1973) Verso un’ecologia della mente, Adelphi, Milano, 1976
  3. Boon J., Sheridan L. (eds.) (2002) Stalking and psychosexual obssession: psychological perspectives for prevention, policing and treatment, Jhon Wiley & Sons, Chichester, UK
  4. Caretti V., Craparo G., Manzi G.S., Schimmenti A. (2015) Stalker. Psicopatologia del molestatore assillante, Fioriti, Roma
  5. Cupach W.R., Spitzberg B.H. (2004) Attrazione, ossessione e stalking, Astrolabio, Roma, 2011
  6. Dutton D.G. (1995) The batterer: a psychological prolife, Basic Books, New York
  7. Dutton D.G. (1999) The abusive personality: violence and control in intimate relationships, Guilford Press, New York
  8. Dutton D.G., Kropp P.R. (2000) “A review of domestic violence risk instruments”, Trauma, Violence & Abuse, 1: 171-181
  9. Hare R.D. (1993) Without conscience: the disturbing world of pshychopaths among us, Simon and Schuster, New York
  10. Krug E.G., Dahlberg L.L., Mercy J.A., Zwi A.B., Lozano R. (eds.) (2002) World report on violence and health, World Health Organization, Geneva
  11. Langhinrichsen-Rohling J. (2006) “An examination of sheltered battered women’s perpretation of stalking and other unwanted pursuit behaviors”, Violence and Victims, 21: 579-595.
  12. Mullen P.E., Pathè M., Purcell R. (2009) Stalkers and Their Victims, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
  13. Reale E. (2011) Maltrattamento e violenza sulle donne. Vol. II – Criteri, metodi e strumenti per l’intervento clinico, FrancoAngeli, Milano
  14. Riggs D.S., Caulfield M.B., Street A.E. (2000) “Risk for domestic violence: factors associated with perpetration and victimization”, Journal of Clinical Psychology, 56: 1282-1316.
  15. Walker L.E. (1979) The battered woman, Harper and Row, New York
  16. Warren L.J., MacKenzie R., Mullen P.E., Ogloff J.R. (2005) “The problem behavior model: the development of a stalker clinic and a threateners clinic”, Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 23: 387-397.

Maddalena Cialdella, Paola de Cesare, Lo stalking: aspetti sociali e psicologici di un fenomeno in aumento in "PSICOBIETTIVO" 1/2019, pp 76-88, DOI: 10.3280/PSOB2019-001007