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Stalking Study Mumbai
Stalking Study Mumbai
Edited by
Trends and Issues in Victimology, Edited by Natti Ronel, K. Jaishankar and Moshe Bensimon
This book first published 2008
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK
Copyright 2008 by Natti Ronel, K. Jaishankar and Moshe Bensimon and contributors
All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
ISBN (10): 1-4438-0069-4, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-0069-3
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword ..................................................................................................... x
Gerd F. Kirchhoff
Editors Introduction ................................................................................... 1
Between perception and victimization: Trends and issues in victimology
Natti Ronel, K. Jaishankar & Moshe Bensimon
Part I: Justice for victims
Chapter One............................................................................................... 12
Ideology and the behavior of perpetrators and victims of violence
Noach (Norman) Milgram
Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 32
An informal approach to delinquents and their victims: An alternative
to standard punishment
Uri Timor
Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 57
Family-group conferencing in Israel: The voices of victims following
restorative justice proceedings
Esther Shachaf-Friedman & Uri Timor
Chapter Four.............................................................................................. 88
Restitution: A multilateral penal approach
Sharon Aharoni-Goldenberg and Yael Wilchek-Aviad
Chapter Five ............................................................................................ 112
Malimath Committee and crime victims: Resurrecting the forgotten
voices of the Indian criminal justice system
K. Jaishankar, P. Madhava Soma Sundaram & Debarati Halder
viii
Table of Contents
ix
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
A SURVEY OF STALKING VICTIMS IN INDIA
K. JAISHANKAR, MEGHA DESAI
AND P. MADHAVA SOMA SUNDARAM
Abstract
Stalking is a term which is predominantly used in United States and other
developed countries. However, in India, stalking was never recognized, and
it is always called by the name Eve-teasing, which ironically is used as a
holistic term for sexual harassment. Stalking is now recognized by the
National Commission for Women as a separate term after the
Priyadharshini Matoos Case. Research on stalking is now only catching up
and the present study which is conducted in Mumbai City, Maharashtra
State is third in series done by the lead author. The other studies were
conducted in Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu State. Data were
collected from 230 self defined victims (College Students), by survey
method, using a questionnaire developed by The Network for Surviving
Stalking (NSS), UK. Significantly, the results showed more reporting and
the presence of cyber stalking, which was not present in the earlier studies.
Introduction
Eve-teasing, a form of street level sexual harassment is a very popular
crime against women in India. While legal definitions refer to crimes that
outrage the modesty or insult women, in many Indian states the category of
Eve-teasing of women finds popular usage (Anagol-McGinn, 1994; Baxi,
2001; Gender Study Group, 1996), which is otherwise technically known as
gender harassment. The term Eve-teasing is used to refer to:
Sexual harassment of women in public places such as the streets, public
transportation, parks, beaches, and cinema halls. This type of public
harassment by a lone man or gangs of men includes verbal assaults such as
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making passes or unwelcome sexual jokes; nonverbal assaults such as
showing obscene gestures, winking, whistling, and staring; and physical
assaults such as pinching, fondling, and rubbing against women in public
places (Saxena, 1995, p. 225).
Discarding the notion of Eve-teasing, Frederick (2002, para 5-6) feels that
Eve-teasing is an inappropriate term. He asserts:
Eve-teasing is a term that highlights the offenders perception of the act;
and by continuing to use it, we are supporting the eve-teaser, unwittingly
though. It is time we painted this menace in the dark colours that it
deserves. To start with, we could coin a new name for it. Far too often, we
find the victim on the wrong side of the stick. If we were to go into the
aetiology of Eve-teasing, as propounded by so-called analysts of the
phenomenon, it would seem ludicrous, if not nauseating With the way
she dressed she had it coming. She would have encouraged the boys and
Boys will be boys, girls have to be discreet. The behavioural scientists
are in a sense in cahoots with Eve-teasers as they seem to be condoning
their crimes (Frederick, 2002, para 5-6).
Sarika Shah, a college student, fell victim to eve-teasing when she was attacked
by some hooligans who came in motor vehicles, started teasing her and pulled her
down and she died of the attack. In the wake of the furore of public reaction, the
Tamil Nadu Government promulgated a stopgap measure in the form of the Tamil
Nadu Prohibition of Eve-teasing Ordinance, 1998. This was then repealed in 2002
as Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act. The Act further, defines
and criminalizes harassment death and harassment suicide. The definition of
harassment in the Act, is stipulated as: Harassment means any indecent conduct
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the victims of Eve-teasing in the Tamil Nadu state (Gopal & Paul, 2008;
Nahar, 2007).
A popular category of Eve-teasing is stalking, which Indian law has not
looked as serious issue. In the Indian context, Eve-teasing is looked as a
broader term and stalking is a part of Eve-teasing. Though, stalking is there
in India in the past, it was not acknowledged with this terminology and it was
always merged with Eve-teasing (Jaishankar & Kosalai, 2007). On the other
hand, stalking is much graver than Eve-teasing and it is an obsessive
behaviour. However, stalking is now recognized by the National Commission
for Women as a separate term after the Priyadharshini Matoos Case2
(Sarkar, 2005).
Though many countries have different definitions of stalking, the U.S.
Department of Justices Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) (2004) suggests
a general definition: Stalking refers to repeated harassing or threatening
behaviour by an individual, such as following a person, appearing at a
person's home or place of business, making harassing phone calls, leaving
written messages or objects, or vandalizing a person's property (p. 2).
There is no Indian definition of stalking, as only after the Matoos case
stalking has gained significance. The National commission for women has
proposed a definition on stalking, which is slated to be an amendment to the
IPC, as a new section. Any person who stalks a woman with the intention to
cause (a) serious harm or injury to that woman or a third person or (b)
apprehension or fear of serious harm or injury to that woman or to a third
person shall be punished with imprisonment... or with fine or with both
(Sarkar, 2005, para 5). A stalker can be imprisoned for a period of up to
seven years as per the Sexual Assault Prevention Bill prepared by the NCW.
However, it should be noted that this definition does not include men, though
men are stalked. Sarkar (2005, para 13-14) further explains the Sexual
Assault Prevention Bill:
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To ensure that the law is not abused, the proposed Bill goes on to explain
what constitutes stalking. It says that a stalker is a person who has, at least
on three occasions, followed or approached a woman, loitered near her, or
watched her while she entered a place where she lived, worked or visited.
It also says that a stalker is one who keeps a woman under surveillance or
interferes with her property. He gives or sends her offensive material, or
places offensive material where it is likely to catch her attention. The
stalker telephones or contacts a woman or acts covertly in a manner that
could reasonably be expected to arouse apprehension or fear in the woman
or engages in conduct amounting to intimidation, or an offence under
Section 509 of the Indian Penal Code.
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stalking may not have been highlighted, because the usage of internet is
comparatively less by the rural population. Sexual assault was not found in
this study as a harassment method.
Desai and Jaishankar (2007) has attempted to analyze the nature and
extent of cyber stalking victimization with more than 72 samples, to
understand cyber stalking victimization of girl students in Mumbai City. This
investigation has revealed perturbing insight into the experiences of cyber
stalking victims and has provided preliminary answers to some of the
questions set in the introduction. Although cyber stalking has a nebulous
quality in that it often involves no more than the targeted repetition of
ostensibly ordinary behaviours, most of the victims surveyed in this study
reported shared experiences. The first harassing communication methods are
also done mainly via emails (62.5%) and Google talk, MSN etc (48.6%). The
other methods of cyber stalking also involved telephone calls, letters, and
offline stalking. Although they are comparatively in smaller numbers,
harassment through telephone calls is nearly 26.4%.
The present study on stalking was done in Mumbai, the financial capital
of India, and is the first study conducted outside Tamil Nadu State thus it has
opened more avenues of research from a national perspective. The aim of the
present study is to analyse the nature and extent of stalking victimization
among college students, assess the stalkers relationship with the victims and
the stalker harassment methods and to examine the impact of victimization.
Some of the research questions of this study are: What is the nature and
extent of stalking victimization? What is the perception of victims towards
stalking? What is the relationship of stalker with the victim? What are the
methods of stalking harassment? What are the effects of stalking on the
victims?
Method
Participants, design and procedure
A total of 230 participants were selected for this study. Majority of the
respondents were women (90.9%) and a small number of respondents were
men (9.1%). Data were collected mostly from female respondents because
Mumbai is found to be a volatile place for crimes against women as per a
recent newspaper report (Swaminathan, 2007) and also the Mumbais
contribution to the crimes against women of the State of Maharashtra (8.7%).
Because stalking is endured predominantly by women, the remainder of this
chapter assumes that women are victims and men are perpetrators. All the
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respondents had an academic education and most of them hailed from middle
class (72.2%).
The study was conducted in selected 10 colleges which offer courses on
Arts, Science, Engineering, and Medicine, of Mumbai City. The selection of
colleges was done by lottery method. Purposive (Quota) sampling method
was adopted to choose the sample for this study. The questionnaire was
constructed for a former study in Tamil Nadu, India (Jaishankar & Kosalai,
2007) as we described in the introduction.
Only respondents who identified themselves as victims of stalking were
chosen for this study. The researchers approached the college students and
explained about the study. Students were drawn in groups and the students
who felt that they are victims of stalking and who volunteered themselves
were included in the study. Those students who volunteered were secluded
and a questionnaire was administered to them. As the majority of the
participants were women, one of the authors of this chapter who is a female
collected the data and that enabled easy access of the women respondents of
this study.
Questionnaire
The research tool consisted of 35 items pertaining to the objectives of the
study. The tool was divided into 4 parts. Part 1 had items relating socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents. Part 2 of the tool had items
relating about stalking and stalkers. Part 3 had items relating to responses and
support for victims of stalking/harassment. Part 4 of the tool had items
relating to effects of stalking. The questionnaire which were prepared for the
earlier study showed reliability for Stalking and stalkers (=.705), Victims
response (=.699) and Effects of stalking (=.679). Hence the tool was
considered reliable and it is used in this study also.
Results
The results are produced in two tables which showed stalking and
harassment methods and the impact of victimization. Discussion of the
results is produced after the results.
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Most victims (75%) said they had not heard of stalking prior to their
own victimization. Most of the respondents (78.3%) felt that they are not
stalked at the present. Majority of the respondents (54.8 %; n=126) felt that
there was no cause for stalking, on the other hand some of the respondents
(29.6%; n=68) felt that because they have rejected the stalker, they were
stalked. A further 44.3% (n=102) of the respondents had some prior
acquaintance with the stalker, e.g. the stalker was a friend or a neighbour.
Around 52.6% (n=121) felt that their stalkers were strangers. One in 10
stalkers began their campaigns as total strangers to the victim. This
underlines the fact that virtually anyone can become the victim of a stalker,
and stalkers can be found in most social situations (Jaishankar & Kosalai,
2007; Jaishankar, 2007). One clear finding was that before they were
targeted, victims (37.8%; n=87) simply didnt believe that stalking was
something that could ever happen to them. They had felt that they would be
able to deal with it before it became serious, or that it only happened to
people who encouraged it. More than third of the respondents (37.4%; n=86)
believed it to be a severe harassment problem and a small percentage (18.7%)
felt that only the mentally ill stalked.
The impact of stalking is shown as physical, emotional, and social and
financial. As far as physical symptoms of the impact are concerned, less than
half of the respondents (n=94) did not report any symptom. The others (58%;
n=134) reported physical symptoms such as weight changes, loss of appetite,
sleep disturbance, headache, tiredness, vomiting, weakness, and self harm. In
case of emotional symptoms, all of the respondents (100%; n=230) felt
anxiety, anger, confusion, fear, increased distrust, paranoia, and irritation.
Stalking can also trigger a wide variety of behavioural reactions. Many
victims take steps to avoid being followed and spied on. They alter their
normal routines, avoid going out alone, and give up leisure activities. To
protect themselves, they may screen all telephone calls (at home and work)
and change their telephone number, email and postal addresses. More drastic
action may include temporary or permanent relocation. They may move to
another place or try to change their identity, leaving behind close friends and
relatives, and abandoning their courses (Jaishankar & Kosalai, 2007;
Jaishankar, 2007; National Center for Victims of Crime, 2002, 2004; OVC,
1992). In the present study, a small number of victims (12.2% n=28) had
changed their courses. However, 92.6% (n=213) of the respondents have left
their social activities because of their victimization and they have also lost
contact with their friends or other family members (92.6%) (n=213). Around
66.5% (n=153) have changed their email addresses. A prominent finding in
this study is that 35.2% (n=81) of the victims have gone for legal advice.
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like yoga and reiki to get out of their victimization. One can consider it to be
a positive sign of change.
Limitations
Though this research is based on the previous studies, inferential statistics
were not obtained for reasons on the exploratory nature of the research and
also hypothesis is not made, instead it tried to answer some research
questions. In future studies this will be taken in to account. This research is
only a survey and it is not trying to correlate any variables related to the
socioeconomic characteristics of the victims. Also the impact of
victimization is not measured by any clinical instrument and it is a direction
for future research in this area. Getting samples from victims of stalking in
India is a difficult task as many would not volunteer to open their
victimization. However, efforts have been made to unearth such victimization
in a minimal scale. A nation wide study on stalking with more funding will
bring better results.
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