Dr. Ermshar was proud to be second author on an impressive presentation on stalking by her post-doc, Dr. Bianca Feuer, at the California Psychological Association Conference 2015.
Summary:
Given the current literature suggesting that cyberstalking is underreported, the current examined what variables correlate with reporting cyberstalking to law enforcement. A total of 279 adult participants were obtained through Qualtrics Online Survey to ensure a random sample. All participants received a consent form describing their participation requirements, confidentiality, and the procedures involved. They completed a demographics form and then received one of six vignettes varying by severity of cyberstalking behaviors and victim-perpetrator relationship. However, in the vignettes, the word cyberstalking never appeared. They were then asked to decide whether or not to report to law enforcement. An ANOVA was used and significance was found. There was a significant difference found in severity of cyberstalking behavior; the higher the severity of the behavior, the more likely an individual was to report. A significant difference was found in the victim-perpetrator relationship with participants indicating they are more likely to report an unknown perpetrator. A significant difference was found in gender of the participant, with women more likely to report. However, there was no significant interaction found between gender, the victim-perpetrator relationship, and gender of the participant. A post-hoc analysis revealed that individuals were less likely to report in the low severity scenario than in the medium or high severity scenarios. The results displayed a “j-curve”, which show that most participants would be very likely (62.7%) to report cyberstalking behavior to law enforcement. This is contrary to past research showing that cyberstalking is grossly underreported. There was a skew in the participant population in that the majority of the participants were female, Caucasian, and married; however, it is unclear if this was statistically significant to the results. Future research should evaluate additional variables that may relate to likelihood of reporting cyberstalking, including victim’s personality traits and attitudes toward law enforcement.
