- LEICESTER, England (Reuters)
- Fifty percent of stalkers are former partners who harbor a bitterness
or hatred for their victims and are likely to use violence and threats,
a British psychologist said on Thursday.
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- They tend to be hostile, hot-headed and impulsive and
may recruit friends and families in their campaign, Dr. Lorraine Sheridan
said in a report presented at a science conference.
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- The professor of psychology at the University of Leicester
in central England compiled personality profiles of stalkers, who fall
into four types, for law enforcement officials after studying 124 stalking
cases.
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- "It can help investigators to prioritize from the
large number of potentially important factors present in any given case,"
she said in the report.
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- Sheridan found that 50 percent of stalkers are ex-partners,
18.5 percent are infatuated with their target, 15.3 percent are delusional
and do not respond to reason or rejection and 12.9 percent are sadistic
and obsessed with their victim.
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- The popular perception of stalkers is of mentally ill
people following celebrities, royalty or strangers. But research has shown
that many stalkers know their victims.
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- Sheridan said the profiles are important because they
can enable police and legal officials to understand the motivations behind
various stalking activities.
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- "This is especially important given that the same
behaviors may present different levels of danger when perpetrated by different
stalker types," she explained.
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- An infatuated stalker and a sadistic stalker may both
send flowers and letters to get information about their victims.
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- "However, the motivations for these acts differ
markedly," Sheridan added.
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- A U.S. study estimated that eight percent of women and
two percent of men have been stalked at some time during their lives.
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