Date of Graduation

2000

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MA

Committee Chair

William Fremouw

Abstract

Stalking has received a great deal of attention from the media and its harmful effects on victims have been well documented. Stalking is also more common than previously thought, leading researchers to classify stalkers into groups in an attempt to predict future behavior. Previous research has grouped stalkers based on theoretical models rather than trying to empirically examine stalking behaviors along with other factors such as motivation, type of relationship, and attachment style in determining a typology of stalkers. Female college students (N = 108) who had experienced harassing behaviors responded to questions regarding their perceptions of those behaviors. First these victim perceptions were factor analyzed. Then cluster analysis grouped those factors to produce a four cluster typology of stalkers. Results were generally not replicated in a second independent sample although one cluster from each group appeared similar in it's characteristics.

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