January Is National Stalking Awareness Month - Would You Know Stalking If You Saw It?

“Joe seemed like a nice guy. I met him through one of those online dating sites.  I made a mistake and finally gave him my personal email.  Then the emails came fast and furious. It was ‘too much too soon’ so I backed away.   

Now he won’t leave me alone.  I asked for no further contact – but he sent me flowers to my workplace – and I never told him where I work.  I am getting concerned.  My co-workers think I am being silly…but I am not so sure.  What do I do?”

Would you know stalking if you saw it? Would you know it if it was happening to you?

January is National Stalking Awareness Month. Did you know:

·         One in 6 women (16.2%) and 1  in 19 men (5.2%) in the United States have experienced stalking victimization at some point during their lifetime in which they felt very fearful or believed that they or someone close to them would be harmed or killed.

·         Two-thirds (66.2%) of female victims of stalking were stalked by a current or former intimate partner; men were primarily stalked by an intimate partner or an acquaintance, 41.4% and 40.0%, respectively.

·         Repeatedly receiving unwanted telephone calls, voice, or text messages was the most commonly experienced stalking tactic for both female and male victims of stalking (78.8% for women and 75.9% for men).

·         More than half of female victims and more than one-third of male victims of stalking indicated that they were stalked before the age of 25; about 1 in 5 female victims and 1 in 14 male victims experienced stalking between the ages of 11 and 17.

(CDC NISVS Survey, released December 2011)

The National Stalking Awareness Month website has been updated with 2012 materials - including posters, public service announcements, buttons, website banners, and more.

There are also examples of how you can raise awareness about stalking, sample status updates for a variety of social networking sites, and a quiz to check your knowledge on stalking. (I even missed some of the quiz questions!)

Go to www.stalkingawarenessmonth.org to learn more.

For the Presidential Proclamation of National Stalking Awareness Month, click here.

What to do if you are the victim of a stalker

·         If you feel you are in immediate danger, call 9-1-1.

·         Trust your instincts. If you sense you are in danger, you probably are.

·         Tell the stalker "no" only once. Repeatedly saying "no" reinforces the stalking by keeping the stalker engaged. Do not confront or try to bargain with a stalker.

·         Get an answering machine and leave it on your old phone line. Get another unlisted number for your family and friends. Have a friend monitor the answering machine if it is difficult for you. If you close off an avenue to a stalker they will find another which may be worse.

·         Develop a safety plan. Safety plans can includes such things as changing your routes to work, arranging for others to accompany you in public, temporarily staying with friends, planning what you can say if you run into the stalker, keeping an emergency phone nearby.

·         Try to secure your accounts so your stalker cannot access information about you. Change your passwords frequently. Contact the utility companies and set up a password for your account. Block your address at Department of Motor Vehicles. Check with the Secretary of State's office to see if you are eligible for a confidential address.

·         Document everything even if you don't go to the police. Photograph injuries and damages. Ask witnesses to write down what they saw. Keep a log of dates, times, places, and witnesses.

·         Tell others that you are being stalked so that neighbors and co-workers will be alerted not to divulge information and will inform you when he/she is around.

Seek help. Document everything. Take it seriously.

CDC Releases NISVS Findings

  

"On average, 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States. Over the course of a year, that equals more than 12 million women and men. Those numbers only tell part of the story – more than 1 million women reported being raped, and over 6 million women and men were a victim of stalking."

On December 14, the Division for Violence Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention presented the initial findings from the National Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS). 

NISVS is an on­going, nationally representative survey that assesses experiences of sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence among adult women and men in the United States. It measures lifetime victimization for these types of violence as well as victimization in the 12 months prior to the survey.

The survey goes beyond counting acts of sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence by assessing the range of violence experienced by victims and the impact of that victimization. The report also includes the first ever simultaneous national and state-level prevalence estimates of these forms of violence for all states.  

The findings show that, on average, 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States.  Over the course of a year, that equals more than 12 million women and men. Those numbers only tell part of the story – more than 1 million women reported being raped, and over 6 million women and men were a victim of stalking.

These findings emphasize that sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence are widespread and a major public health problem in the United States. The report underscores the heavy toll of this violence, particularly on women; the immediate impacts of victimization; and the lifelong health consequences of these forms of violence.  For example:

·         Nearly 1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men have been raped in their lifetime.

·         Approximately 80% of female victims were raped before the age of 25, and almost half before the age of 18. About 35% of women who were raped as minors were also raped as adults compared to 14% of women without an early rape history.

·         1 in 4 women have been the victims of severe physical violence by an intimate partner while 1 in 7 men experienced severe violence by an intimate partner.

·         81% of women who experienced  rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner reported significant short and long term impacts related to the IPV experienced such as fear, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and injury, while 35% of men reported such impacts from the IPV experienced.

·         Women who experienced rape or stalking by any perpetrator or physical violence by an intimate partner were more likely than women who did not experience these forms of violence to report asthma, diabetes, and irritable bowel syndrome, as well as other health consequences. 

The full report and more resources are available here.

LIZ CLAIBORNE’S 8th ANNUAL “IT’S TIME TO TALK DAY” TAKES PLACE DECEMBER 8, 2011

What are you doing on December 8, 2011?  Around here at CAEPV – and across the country – people are “taking a moment to talk.”

CAEPV Member Liz Claiborne Inc. and it’s partners have been joining forces for It's Time to Talk Day annually (for eight years now) as a way to encourage greater public dialogue about domestic violence. The Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence is proud to be one of those partners.

Around the country, talk radio, government officials, domestic violence advocates, businesses, schools and the public-at-large take a moment - or more - to talk openly about an issue that affects nearly one in three women at some point in their lifetime. In fact, millions of talk radio listeners around the country were reached with the message since the inception of It’s Time to Talk Day in 2004.

 Liz Claiborne is continuing their very successful partnership with Talk Radio News Service by sponsoring their annual “Talk Radio Row on Domestic Violence” at Liz Claiborne Inc. headquarters in New York City.  Leading national and local talk radio hosts will be conducting back-to-back interviews with guests on various domestic violence issues throughout the entire day. 

This year’s participants include Alan Colmes of Fox News Radio; Dr. Joy Browne of WOR Radio Network; Mark Riley of WWRL, New York; Curtis Sliwa of WNYM (The Apple), New York; Roberta Facinelli of “Doug Stephan’s Good Day;” John Fugelsang of “The Stephanie Miller Show;” Kevin McCullough of “The Kevin McCullough Show” and “Baldwin/McCullough;” Maria Bailey of “Mom Talk Radio;” Gary Baumgarten of Paltalk; Lionel of WPIX-TV, New York Channel 11 and LionelMedia.com; Barry Farber of Talk Radio Network and CRN Digital Talk Radio; Lisa Wexler of “The Lisa Wexler Show;” Ken Pittman of WBSM, New Bedford, MA/Providence, RI; Dr. Renee Kohanski of PodJockey; Dan Patterson of KoPoint and Ellen Ratner and Geoff Holtzman of Talk Radio News Service who will be broadcasting throughout the day to several hundred of the news service’s affiliates.

Joining the lineup this year will be representatives of college talk radio with WRHU, Hempstead of Hofstra University; WLIU, Brooklyn of Long Island University and WNEK, Springfield, MA of Western New England University in attendance. Included among those who will be taking live and recorded feeds from the event are Thom Hartmann of “The Thom Hartmann Show;” Dom Giordano of WPHT, Philadelphia; and Carole Marks of “A Touch of Grey” with several more to be announced.

TALKERS publisher Michael Harrison states, “‘It’s Time to Talk Day’ is certainly one of our most important annual events. It raises consciousness about a societal problem that impacts a frighteningly large segment of the population and it cuts across all gender, ethnic and demographic boundaries. There isn’t a spoken-word format that doesn’t find the topic of domestic violence applicable to its audience and extremely compelling. Most importantly, we get feedback each year that this radio row, upon reaching millions of talk radio listeners, really does make a huge difference in the lives of real people. It doesn’t get better than that. We are grateful to Liz Claiborne, Inc. for their public-mindedness in supporting such a valuable project.” Talkers.com will provide full coverage of the event.

You can make a difference by hosting an "It's Time to Talk Day" event in your community. For the past several years cities and organizations from around the country held various programs to raise awareness of the issue. Programs and events have ranged from big, organized efforts such as press conferences, walks and vigils, to creative projects such as plays, and lastly educational efforts were made to devote this day to teaching the curriculum at local schools. For event ideas for your community, click here.

We are proud to be part of this effort as ask you to “take a moment to talk” on December 8.  As our electronic billboards say,  perhaps you can start the conversation with co-workers, chat over coffee with friends, talk with your family over dinner, or simply talk with your children about healthy relationships.

Not sure where to start?  Liz Claiborne has great tips in their downloadable booklets on their Love Is Not Abuse website.  You can check them out here.

Join us in taking a moment to talk on December 8.  You may change – or save – a life.