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Stalking Awareness Month

January 2024 marks the 20th annual National Stalking Awareness Month (NSAM)

What is stalking?

The National Domestic Violence Hotline defines stalking as one person's obsessive behavior directed toward another person, behavior that causes the victim to fear for their safety. Stalking occurs when someone watches, follows, or harasses you repeatedly, making you feel afraid or unsafe, and may occur from someone you know, a past partner, or a stranger. This can include different types of abuse.

Stalkers use a variety of tactics, including (but not limited to), says SPARC: unwanted contact including phone calls, texts, and contact via social media, unwanted gifts, showing up/approaching an individual or their family/friends, monitoring, surveillance, property damage, and threats.

Stalking statistics

1 in 6 women and 1 in 19 men in the US have been a victim of stalking at some point during their lifetime in which they felt fearful or believed that they (or someone close to them) would be harmed or killed.

2/3 female stalking victims were stalked by current or former intimate partners.

The most common stalking tactic experienced by both female and male victims of stalking was repeated unwanted phone calls, voice, or text messages.

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The intersections of stalking and domestic violence

"Domestic violence is all about one person gaining and maintaining power and control over another person, and stalking can be one way abusers choose to accomplish this."

If you or someone you know is experiencing stalking, call Doorways' 24-hour hotline at 703-237-0881 for support, information, and referrals to services.

In the News

For all of its joy, ‘The Color Purple’ is also a chance to talk about Black women and intimate partner violence

"I was touched by the songs and performances, but the new 'The Color Purple' film — for all of its joy — should still be allowed to be an important cultural reflection on how we talk about various kinds of violence against Black women. While it has endured for decades on the page, on the screen and on the stage for its depth, the way intimate partner violence is talked about, studied and analyzed has slowly changed too."

"Whether we know it or not, we all know or are in proximity to a Black woman like Celie."

Murder-suicides are an urgent domestic violence and gun control issue

"There are the substantial dangers—especially to women and children—of allowing individuals with a known propensity for domestic violence to possess firearms."

Homelessness has reached record levels. We know how to fight it.

"Last year, almost 900,000 people fell into homelessness for the first time, a 25 percent increase from the previous year and by far the largest increase ever recorded," writes Shaun Donovan, former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

"It's especially frustrating because we know how to stem the tide. We've done it before. We know what works."

How the myth of self-sufficiency perpetuates homelessness

"The myth of self-sufficiency keeps us disconnected from each other. It allows us to accept that some people don't have access to the most basic resources they need to survive."

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