Stalking Psychiatric Perspectives and Practical Approaches

Over the last two decades, stalking has received increasingly widespread attention. The establishment of anti-stalking legislation has helped to spur interest in stalking research and the forensic assessment of stalkers. Popular representations of stalking have made the public more aware of this phenomenon. It has long been the responsibility of mental health professionals to provide assessments of and treatment for stalkers and their victims, and as criminal cases involving defendants charged with stalking become more common, it is now also the responsibility of legal professionals to be knowledgeable about psychiatric aspects of stalking behavior and the risks that so often must be minimized through legal action or a combination of clinical and legal interventions. This volume provides a thorough overview of current scientific and clinical research about stalking, along with practical guidance and original commentary from the Psychiatry and the Law Committee of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, an organization recognized for its contributions to mental health literature. In addition to covering the most widely discussed scientific topics related to stalking, including classification of stalking behaviors, risk assessment and risk management of stalkers, and the stalking experience from the perspective of victims, this book examines celebrity and special target stalking, cyberstalking, forensic assessment, and juvenile and adolescent stalking. Stalking: Psychiatric Perspectives and Practical Approaches provides a novel and comprehensive contribution to a field in need of an up-to-date text, written from the vantage point of forensic psychiatrists who encounter stalkers and their victims in their distinct roles as treatment providers and forensic evaluators. The prism of stalking and the risks involved continue to fascinate and frighten. In pursuit of rounded coverage, the authors have incorporated findings from numerous studies and analyzed these findings from several theoretical perspectives. Every chapter has been written from the vantage point of a committee of nationally recognized forensic psychiatrists who offer their perspectives on this fascinating but complex topic. Mental health professionals, members of the judiciary, law enforcement professionals, media personnel, and the public will no doubt find this text to be an informative and useful resource.