Stalking may be a point of entree for children to become sex slavery victims. Credits: Nationalstalkingawarenessmonth.org
Stalking. It affects 3.4 million people in the US, mainly women being stalked by men. January 2012 has been proclaimed National Stalking Awareness Month by President Obama, and today, the Whitehouse is hosting a roundtable to discuss the problem1. TK Logan, professor in the Department of Behavioral Science, University of Kentucky College of Medicine is an expert on stalking and interpersonal violence and will be contributing to the discussions.
The roundtable will consist of experts from law enforcement, academia and the victim advocacy fields and will focus on:
- Why young women experience such high rates of stalking,
- Why stalking remains a hidden problem,
- How technology plays a central role in stalking and
- What must be done in future to address the issue.
Stalking2 is defined as “a course of conduct directed at a specific person that involves repeated visual or physical proximity, nonconsensual communication, or verbal, written, or implied threats, or a combination thereof, that would cause a reasonable person fear.” Examples of this behavior include:
- Repeated undesired contact (phone calls, emails, letters, show up unexpectedly, etc.).
- Following or laying in wait for the individual.
- Making threats to the individual or her/his family.
- Any other behavior used to contact, harass, track, or threaten the individual.
According to a December report from the Center for Disease Control3, one out of six women and one of 19 men have been victims of stalking. The majority know the perpetrator. Various forms of technology are used in 25 percent of the cases, and electronic monitoring and harassment are becoming increasingly common and insidious.
- Cell phones. Victims are called or texted numerous times each day
- Internet. The stalker may bombard the victim with emails or facebook messages, or may try to monitor all computer use or hack or compromise the systems. Chat rooms or other social media can be used as an initial point of contact with a potential stalkee.
- Hidden cameras. Predators may videotape the targeted women at their homes, their work, or in their cars
- GPS systems: The comings and goings of the target are recorded, making it easy for the stalker to show up physically at any time.
- Total control of everything the girl does
- Monitoring of her whereabouts, her clients, and the money she makes
- Restricted access to outside communication and tracking of phone calls and internet use
- Threats and psychological manipulation
- Escalation to physical violence
- Extreme jealousy and punishment of the victim for supposed infractions of the relationship rules.
- Anxiety and terror
- Feelings of helplessness
- Nightmares, panic attacks, PTSD
- Hyper-vigilance
- Fear of violence or death
- Inability to get out of the relationship, knowing they will be tracked down and further violated
- Emotional bondage
Stalking and sex trafficking are both forms of terrorism. January is Stalking Awareness Month and National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month. If you or anyone you know are involved in relationships that look like stalking or sex slavery, a call to law enforcement is the best bet, starting with 911. For either case, more information can be gathered by calling the national hotline established by RAINN (Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network), 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
Tags: abduction of children, buying girls, child porn, child pornography, child prostitutes, child prostitution, child rape, child rape survivor, child rape survivor treatment center, child rapist, child sex, child sex abuse, child sex porn, child sex slavery, child sex trafficking, child-rape-for-profit, convicted sex offender, DMST, forced prostitution, gang rape, gangrape, human sex trafficking, human trafficing, human trafficking, johns, kiddie porn, National Slavery and Human Trafficking Awareness Month, National Stalking Awareness Month, pimp, Pimp culture, President Obama, prostituting of minors, prostitution of minors, Rape, rapists, sex abuse survivors, sex crimes, sex crimes against children, sex offender, sex slavery, sex slavery victim, sex trafficing, sex trafficking, sex trafficking survivor residential care, Sex trafficking survivor safehouse, sex trafficking survivor shelter, sex trafficking victim, sexslavery, sextrafficking, sexual predator, Stalking Roundtable, stop human trafficking, stop-child-rape, stopchildrape, StreetLight Phoenix, StreetlightUSA, teen sex, Trafficking of children, Trafficking of minors, young porn
