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January 18th is National Stalking Awareness Day
DETROIT, MI - On January 18, 2025, you are invited to spread awareness about stalking through the theme "KNOW IT, NAME IT, STOP IT." January 2025 marks the twenty-first annual National Stalking Awareness Month (NSAM), an annual call to action to recognize and respond to this criminal, traumatic, and dangerous victimization of intrusive, persistent, and often obsessive pursuit behaviors.
Nearly 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men in the U.S. experience stalking in their lifetimes,i but too often it goes unrecognized and unaddressed. It takes all of us - advocacy and support services, legal systems, and victims/survivors and their friends and family - to better recognize and respond to stalking.
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. Most stalkers target people that they know, and the majority of stalkers are intimate partners or acquaintances who know about the victim's vulnerabilities and fears.ii Individual incidents in the pattern may or may not be criminal acts; common stalking tactics include unwanted calls/texts/emails/messages, showing up uninvited, spreading rumors, and following and watching the victim.
Survivors often suffer anxiety, social dysfunction, and severe depression as a result of their victimization, and many lose time from work and/or relocate.iii,iv Stalking can impact every aspect of a survivor's life, yet many victims, families, service providers, criminal and civil justice professionals, and the general public underestimate its danger and urgency. The vast majority of victims tell friends or family about their situation first, and how we respond influences whether they seek further help.
"We all have a role to play in identifying stalking, intervening when necessary, and supporting victims and survivors," said Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office is calling on Wayne County to Know It, Name It, Stop It - learn how to get involved with NSAM and the Stalking Awareness Day of Action of January 18th at www.StalkingAwareness.org.
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Nearly 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men in the U.S. experience stalking in their lifetimes,i but too often it goes unrecognized and unaddressed. It takes all of us - advocacy and support services, legal systems, and victims/survivors and their friends and family - to better recognize and respond to stalking.
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. Most stalkers target people that they know, and the majority of stalkers are intimate partners or acquaintances who know about the victim's vulnerabilities and fears.ii Individual incidents in the pattern may or may not be criminal acts; common stalking tactics include unwanted calls/texts/emails/messages, showing up uninvited, spreading rumors, and following and watching the victim.
Survivors often suffer anxiety, social dysfunction, and severe depression as a result of their victimization, and many lose time from work and/or relocate.iii,iv Stalking can impact every aspect of a survivor's life, yet many victims, families, service providers, criminal and civil justice professionals, and the general public underestimate its danger and urgency. The vast majority of victims tell friends or family about their situation first, and how we respond influences whether they seek further help.
"We all have a role to play in identifying stalking, intervening when necessary, and supporting victims and survivors," said Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office is calling on Wayne County to Know It, Name It, Stop It - learn how to get involved with NSAM and the Stalking Awareness Day of Action of January 18th at www.StalkingAwareness.org.
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