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Yorktown, Va. (January 12, 2024) January marks National Stalking Awareness Month. It is an annual call to action to recognize and respond to this prevalent, traumatic and dangerous crime. According to the Stalking Prevention Awareness and Resource Center (SPARC), stalking is trivialized, minimized and often goes unrecognized. This year’s theme is Know it, Name it, and Stop it, which points seriousness and alarming prevalence of this behavior.
Shawna Gray, Family Advocacy Program Victim Advocate at Naval Weapons Station Yorktown’s Fleet and Family Support Center provided some insights to stalking, especially electronic stalking which is becoming more prevalent. “You’ve got someone, maybe a service member or previous intimate partner that is sending you 20 maybe 30 text messages or instant messages in chat a day. Calling your phone, leaving voicemail messages. They find you on social media or create fake profiles just to follow the victim. Sometimes they leave something on the victim’s car, a note, flowers, something to say I was here and I know where you live. That is extremely stressful and they [the victims] are walking on eggshells,” she noted.
Stalking is defined as a pattern of behavior directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear or emotional distress. As fear is highly personal, so is stalking; stalkers often engage in behaviors that seem benign to outsiders but are terrifying in context. For example, receiving a surprise flower delivery is generally a welcome experience, but when a victim has quietly relocated to escape a stalker, that flower delivery can be a terrifying and threatening message that the offender has found them.
“With long term stalking, most of those scenarios end with the death or serious bodily harm to the victim and there have been instances where the stalker ends up harming themselves or ultimately commits suicide,” said Gray during a phone interview. She also pointed out that the burden of proving this behavior often falls on the shoulders of the victim.
“There is a lot of responsibility falling on the shoulders of the victims. In Virginia, if a victim would like to bring charges or get a protective order, they need to be able to document and articulate multiple instances of stalking related behavior,” she noted.
She pointed out some resources that any Fleet and Family Support Center can offer. With regard to sexual assault, intimate and/or domestic partner related issues and stalking, she noted that “I often do the safety planning with my clients. I review measures to take, point them in the right direction with getting an incident log or guiding them through getting a civilian protective order. If the abuser is a service member, we can ask the command to issue a military protection order. I can discuss with them civilian charges and assist them with the civilian court process. The big thing is around the victims safety. I can also connect my clients with those resources especially when it comes to bringing formal charges. However, the first step is just knowing which resources are available through FFSC.”
In sum, she noted that “victims of stalking, intimate/domestic partner violence or sexual assault don’t have to suffer in silence. They don’t have to go through this alone and this is a reportable offense. They can contact the family advocacy program. We are here to help, we can do the safety planning and coordinate services to help them. All they need to do is reach out, there is no wrong door. They don’t have to go through this process alone and we are here for them.”
For more information about National Stalking Awareness Month, visit https://StalkingAwareness.org. The Department of Defense Sexual Assault Safe Help Line is available 24/7 and around the world by calling 1-877-995-5247. You can also download the DoD Safe Helpline App in the App Store or on Google Play to connect with resources, or connect directly at www.safehelpline.org. Lastly, each installation in the Hampton Roads region has a dedicated team of staff members at their respective Fleet and Family Support Center; get the location(s) and details at www.navylifema.com/support-services.
| Date Taken: | 01.12.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 01.12.2024 23:08 |
| Story ID: | 461808 |
| Location: | YORKTOWN , VA, US |
| Web Views: | 200 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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