News: Stalking on Long Island
(Long Island, N.Y.) A thirty-seven-year-old East Patchogue man was arrested for having stalked a woman for a period of three years. The woman was a forty-nine-year-old wife and mother from Miller Place. The harassment dated back as early as 2008 in the form of emails and phone calls.
The woman knew her stalker after having worked in a retail store. It’s believed that he mistook her professional courtesy for hints of affection and developed an infatuation with her. Friends of the woman claim that he must have mistaken her naturally friendly nature for signs of something more.
Police say that the search for her stalker continued for years prior to his arrest because the man had gone to lengths to conceal his identity and evade traditional efforts of their investigation. He was arrested on March 9th after fleeing from a Starbucks on Route 112 in Medford.
The victim aided in her stalker’s arrest by agreeing to meet him while police used surveillance in the area and had surrounded the Starbucks. The Sixth Precinct Crime Section dealt with this case and caught up to the stalker shortly after he fled the area. He will be prosecuted for fourth-degree stalking, three counts of second-degree aggravated harassment, and second-degree resisting arrest. As of today, he was released on bail after making an appearance at the First District Court in Central Islip.
According to the CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice website, the U.S. Department of Justice shows that more women than men have been stalking victims. Of women, battered women and young adults are the most at risk. An estimated one million or 8% of women and 400,000 or 2% of men have been stalked each year in this country. It is more common than not for victims to know their stalker, and for women to be stalked by a former partner of a previously intimate nature.
Adding to these figures are the statistics that show that only 23% of stalkers were strangers to their female victims. An estimated 74% of stalking victims are between the ages of eighteen and thirty-nine years old at the time of their first stalking incident. Over 85% of all stalkers were male.
Authorities urge potential victims to be attuned to the warning signs involved with stalking. Phone calls of a persistent nature are a typical indicator of stalking behavior, especially if endured even after the victim has requested a termination of contact. Another typical behavior of potential stalking is waiting outside a victim’s residence, school, or place of work. Threats, manipulative behavior, self-inflicting damage to gain victim’s attention, objectification, and defamation are all signs of potential stalking.
The website also provides a list of precautions that should be taken by stalking victims. Police urge potential victims not to take the situation lightly. The immediate action that should be taken is to notify the Department of Public Safety in order to report the situation to the right agency for the acquisition of a restraining order. A great defense against stalking is to continue to document everything by keeping records of voicemails, copies of letters, and even a log of stalking-related incidents.
Another tip listed on the site tells stalking victims not to give their stalkers the satisfaction of responding to their behavior. They urge potential victims to tell their stalkers “no” only once. Also, screening calls and visitors, turning away unknown packages, and destroying discarded mail can prevent incidents of stalking from becoming worse.
Authorities urge people to drive to the nearest police station if they think they are being followed instead of going home or to the house of a friend. Most importantly, if you think you are being stalked, tell as many people as possible so that everyone will be on alert for suspicious persons seeking information.
