Research

Despite the growing perceived prevalence of cyberstalking, there has been a lack of attention focused on this crime type with most research continuing to centre on more traditional forms of stalking. The current study addresses important gaps in literature including examining perceived harms and help-seeking behaviours associated with cyberstalking compared to traditional offline stalking.

For the current study, 189 responses to a survey including traditional and cyberstalking vignettes were collected. The study examined perceived negative impacts of each of these crimes on mental health and wellbeing of victims and explored protective and help-seeking behaviours. The findings of this research reveal that traditional offline stalking has a perceived greater negative impact on a victim’s mental health and wellbeing compared to cyberstalking. While previous victimisation of either crime type did not influence this perception, the manipulation of contextual variables in the vignettes, in particular the relationship of the perpetrator to the victim, allowed for greater insight into the factors affecting perceived harms and responses. The current study found that participants were more likely to recommend protective behaviours across both crime types.

However, participants endorsed help-seeking behaviours in both stalking and cyberstalking scenarios; with law enforcement playing a more important role in offline stalking, and for cyberstalking reports to platform administrators was more likely. While there are many similarities between online and offline stalking, perceptions that ‘real-world’ stalking is more serious than cyberstalking persist. Further research is needed to gain a better understanding of the understudied topic of cyberstalking as we cannot rely on simply translating offline stalking knowledge into the online world.