CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR Rosenfeld, Harmon / VIOLENCE IN STALKING, HARASSMENT CASES FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH VIOLENCE IN STALKING AND OBSESSIONAL HARASSMENT CASES

Differentiating which stalkers represent a significant risk of violence from those who pose less risk has significant implications for victims, clinicians, and the legal system. The authors ana-lyzed 204 stalking and harassment cases referred for court-ordered mental health evaluation in New York City between 1994 and 1998 to identify correlates of violent behavior. Violence, defined as any unwanted physical contact or confrontation with a weapon, occurred in 34 % of cases, although severe violence occurred in only 12 cases. A multivariate logistic regression analysis containing five variables (age below 30, less than high school education, minority race, prior threats, and previous intimate relationship between victim and offender) was applied to an ROC analysis, yielding an area under the curve of.803. The implications of these data for risk assessment in stalking and harassment are discussed. Over the past decade, interest in stalking and obsessional harass-ment has grown dramatically. Antistalking legislation has been passed in each of the 50 U.S. states, Britain, and Canada, and the sci-entific literature has steadily grown and diversified, even the popular 671 EDITOR’S NOTE: This manuscript was accepted for the publication in the special issue of Criminal Justice and Behavior on Risk Assessment (October 2002), which I had the privilege of guest editing. Through my oversight, it was not included among the other articles sent to CJB following favorable review and acceptance. It should be considered in all respects as an article accepted for publication in the Risk Assess-ment special edition (Kirk Heilbrun, Ph.D.)