Keynote speaker Jennifer Landhuis gave a talk titled “Stalking Demystified” as part of Katy Benoit Campus Safety Awareness Month on Tuesday.
Landhuis has over twenty-five years of experience as an educator and advocate on the issues of stalking, domestic violence and sexual assault. She is also the Director of the Stalking Prevention, Awareness and Resource Center which is an AEquitas initiative.
Landhuis began by talking about the misconceptions of stalking and how they can affect people’s understanding of stalking.
“What is usually portrayed [in Romantic Comedy movies] is that stalking is always done by somebody who is good looking and that they are just misunderstood. If the victim would just understand what a great person they were, they would fall in love with that person,” Landhuis said.
The other common portrayal is someone in a black hoodie following a victim.
“Despite all those things the media wants us to believe, stalking is actually traumatic, dangerous and it is criminal,” she said.
Landhuis defines stalking as a pattern of behavior that is directed at a specific person that would cause them to feel either fear or substantial emotional distress. These patterns of behavior often involve surveillance, life invasion, interference through sabotage or attack and intimidation.
“Stalkers invade victims’ lives in their virtual spheres or physical spaces. They humiliate them in public, intimidate the victims through some kind of threat, force a confrontation or try to keep that person from leaving them by ruining their reputation,” Landhuis said. “Intimidation and interference are often forgotten parts of stalking.”
Landhuis asserts that stalking happens for different reasons. Some stalkers stalk because they are obsessed with the victim, they want to engage in a romantic relationship with them, they were rejected by that person and some of them do it out of power and control. Intimate partners are also a large percentage of perpetrators as 40% of stalking victims are stalked by current or former intimate partners.
“1 in three women and one in six men will be stalked at some point in their lifetime,” Landhuis said.
She added that the statistics were even worse for minorities.
“One of the things to keep in mind when it comes to male victims of stalking is that half of the time they are stalked by another male, because of [a jealousy] situation. Someone has been stalking a female who gets into a new romantic relationship and now they are stalking the victim’s new romantic partner.”
“Working on stalking cases is really preventing homicide,” Landhuis said. “It is one of those few crimes where if we intervene early on, maybe we can prevent something like [homicide] from happening. The problem is people usually only recognize where the prevention could have happened after something bad happens.”
Landhuis says that context is important in evaluating stalking cases. Individual things a stalker may do may not violate the Student Code of Conduct or criminal law, but if they do multiple things, they could be held accountable. This makes it difficult to evaluate stalking cases. The other difficult part is determining how a stalker’s actions made the victim feel.
“One of the things we want [students] to be thinking about is where you can point individuals to on this campus for help,” Landhuis said.
It is important to take stalking situations and victims seriously. Support survivors by believing them, asking them what they need from you, knowing where to get help, and letting them decide what action to take, Landhuis said. Victims should let people they trust know if they feel like they are in danger.
UI takes stalking seriously and has resources to help if you or somebody you know is in danger. Campus Safe Walk is available 24/7, the UI Counseling & Mental Health Center is available by appointment, and help can also be found in the UI Women’s Center. In immediate danger, contact the Moscow Police Department.
Georgia Swanson can be reached at [email protected]