MHCC set to host ‘Stalking: More than a Crime’

“Stalking: Know It. Name It. Stop It.” January is National Stalking Awareness Month. The theme is known to challenge the nation to fight this crime that affects an estimated 7.5 million victims per year.

And on Jan. 29, MHCC Public Safety will host “Stalking: More than a Crime” with guest speaker, Kelley Cloyd, Assistant District Attorney for Multnomah County who specializes in Stalking cases.

Open to all, the awareness and prevention presentation will run at noon in the Student Union.

If communities understand stalking, they can support victims and fight the crime, experts say. “If more people learn to recognize stalking,” said Cherilyn Nederhiser, MHCC Public Safety lead officer, “we have a better chance to protect victims and prevent tragedies.”

Stalking is now formally a crime in all 50 U.S. states and territories. It’s said that many victims and criminal justice professionals underestimate its seriousness and impact. Victims suffer anxiety, social dysfunction and severe depression at much higher rates – in a word, trauma.

In one of five cases, stalkers use weapons to harm or threaten victims. There’s an elevated risk of homicide for women in abusive relationships. Stalking can take many forms, such as assaults, threats, vandalism, burglary or animal abuse, as well as unwanted cards, calls, gifts or visits. It may consist of a series of acts, less noticeable then some crimes, with a stalker’s plan for how they can get a target’s attention and cause them to fear them.

Modern technology, including GPS devices or hidden cameras, can track the victim’s daily activities. Stalkers fit no standard psychological profile and many of them follow the victims from one place to another – which makes it difficult to make authorities to investigate and prosecute their crimes.

For more information, see: StalkingAwarenessMonth.org and ovw.usdoj.gov.