Female Stalkers Pursue Doctors, Psychiatrists
By Charnicia E. Huggins
Originally published by Reuters Health, December 3, 2001
NEW YORK — Although most reports of stalking involve a male stalker and a female victim, stalking by females—experienced by both the actor Brad Pitt and the television host David Letterman—is not uncommon, researchers report. In general, however, female stalkers are more likely than males to stalk professional contacts, such as their mental health caregivers, according to new study findings.
"When women engage in stalking behavior, they are as tenacious and as intrusive as their male counterparts, and are just as likely to threaten or damage property,'' lead study author Dr. Rosemary Purcell, now of The Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia, told Reuters Health. "However, the context in which stalking arises among women is different to that encountered among male stalkers.''
For example, "in our group of female stalkers, there was a particular tendency to pursue helping professionals … as professional concern or empathy of these individuals was often re-interpreted as romantic interest,'' Purcell said.
Purcell and her colleagues investigated the differences between male and female stalkers in a study of 40 females and 150 males referred to a mental health clinic that specialized in assessing and managing stalkers and their victims.
The researchers found that 40% of female stalkers pursued someone with whom they had professional contact, such as psychiatrists, psychologists and family physicians, while only slightly more than 20% pursued intimate partners, Purcell and her team report in the December issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry. Nearly 30% of male stalkers, in contrast, pursued intimate partners, while less than 20% pursued a professional contact.
Almost half of the females stalked their victim in hopes of establishing "a close and loving intimacy'' with them, compared to roughly 30% of male stalkers, the report indicates.
Further, nearly half of the female stalkers pursued individuals of the same gender, in comparison to less than 10% of the males. The intimacy sought by the women was usually romantic or sexual, yet it rarely involved homosexuality and included, rather, a desire to establish a "friendship or even a mothering alliance'' with the individual being stalked, the researchers note.
Males and females similarly stalked individuals who had ended a close relationship with them, and both also engaged in ''resentful'' stalking as a means of tormenting an individual who had mistreated them, and "incompetent'' stalking, such as stalking to establish a date with the individual being pursued.
Stalking behaviors such as following, largely favored by males, and telephone calls, largely favored by females, lasted from as few as 2 months to as long as 20 years, the report indicates. Other methods of harassment included threats, property damage and assault. Females, however, were less likely than males to physically assault their victim after issuing an explicit threat.
On average, both male and female stalkers were about 35 years old, usually single and employed. Males were more likely to have a history of criminal or violent criminal offenses, and had a higher rate of substance abuse.
What's more, about half of both the male and female stalkers had diagnosed personality disorders, and 30% of the females and about one quarter of the males had delusional disorders, the report indicates. Other psychiatric problems included schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder.
"Psychiatric interventions aimed at managing the underlying mental illness are crucial to the resolution of stalking behaviors in this group, but therapists providing such treatment should be cognizant of the vulnerability sometimes inherent in this role,'' the researchers conclude.
In addition, until certain assumptions are confronted, such as that male victims should be able to handle being stalked by females, "there are likely to be a number of stalking victims who fail to receive the assistance they deserve, because their cases are unwisely judged as being relatively minor or trivial,'' Purcell said.
