From the November 2003 issue of the print magazine.
In most reports of stalking, celebrities are victims – a fan turns into a fanatic, showering someone in the public eye with letters, presents, text messages, e-mails, putting in appearances at events, shops, even outside their home. However this crime also affects everyday people – and maybe more than you think, suggests Niall Burns. He is Managing Director of International Risk Control, a consultancy that set up a specific stalking and threat management team.
There is legislation in the UK, the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, a result of several highly visible cases of stalking when the power of the police was limited. The legislation is comprehensive and workable; unfortunately the resources available to investigate such incidents is minimal and varies by police force. To effectively investigate this offence will take several months of evidence gathering; meanwhile the victim of the offence will continue to be under attack and at threat from an escalation of the stalking at any time. Celebrity victims usually have the money and the resources to protect themselves from these people โฆ but it makes them no less a victim than a shop assistant being pestered by an over-enthusiastic shopper or a secretary working in an office being wooed by the mail room clerk. Victims and offenders will be of either sex, and what may start off as a perfectly normal attempt at developing a relationship may well progress into criminal activity of a stalking or harassment nature.
Team set up
International Risk Control created a specific stalking and threat management team in 2001: a psychologist, former police officers, close protection officers, surveillance operatives and investigators. IRC hosted a seminar in 2002 where two victims gave harrowing accounts of their ordeals, one having been stalked for several years. The Deputy District Attorney from Los Angeles, Rhonda Saunders, gave a presentation and was very excited that the UK was starting to take this issue seriously. Rhonda has worked on high-profile stalking cases such as those affecting Madonna and Steven Spielberg but the vast bulk of her cases are non-celebrity and sadly several have concluded where victims have been injured or murdered. Stalkers are often resourceful, determined and intelligent with differing motives and little fear of being captured.
About a client
One of our UK clients is an international law firm with offices in London and other European cities. Their security manager is an approachable, affable retired police officer who believes in and is encouraged to provide a full ‘police’ service to his community, totalling around 160 staff in London and 140 in the rest of Europe. In 18 months, this security manager has dealt with five cases of stalking and harassment targeting members of staff. Some have been dealt with by the security manager warning stalkers of the consequences of their actions. However great care must be taken when doing this and we recommend that any correspondence is checked by solicitors prior to sending to the suspect. Two separate cases have required our specialist teams involvement eventually resulting in a successful court hearing in one instance; the other is an on-going investigation. These victims are not celebrities, they are normal people undertaking normal employment. The stalkers were ex-partners in both cases, though they could be no more than a casual acquaintance made in a shop. In this firm more than three per cent of the staff have reported being victims of stalking or harassment. To ensure that the enquiry is conducted efficiently and effectively all of our investigations are undertaken in partnership with the police and our procedures always equal to and often exceed the legal requirements of evidence-gathering. At every step we make use of psychologists and lawyers who are experienced in these type of offences and offenders, thereby ensuring that we keep one step ahead of the offender and provide the correct advice to the victim.
Reports from staff
So, how often do you receive reports of stalking offences against your staff? This will depend upon how you as the security professional have been briefed to perform your role as, in my experience, many security managers will be busy protecting the corporate vulnerabilities with little time left for the concerns of their people. However the effects of a stalker on their victim can be destructive. Does the victim act any differently as a result of being stalked; is their attendance record increasingly poor; is their work suffering? All these factors have been seen in the cases that we have been involved with. Often the offence has continued for a long time whilst the authorities are slowly gathering their evidence; our intervention speeds up this process considerably.
Seriously disturbing
Law enforcement and other professionals are now being increasingly confronted with the victims of stalking. Some of these claims may address only moderately disturbing actions, but many claims do describe seriously disturbing nuisance behaviours, assaultive behaviours and even life-threatening behaviours. Stalking victims are rarely subjected to just one form of harassing activity. Most victims have reported that they experience at least three kinds of harassing behaviour. Victims are commonly followed, experience repeated telephone and/or written contact, direct unwanted approaches, home surveillance, and destruction of personal belongings and other property. Working with victims to try and end stalking does prevent challenges, as it has been consistently shown that stalking victims can be subjected to stalking for months or even years and that some stalkers are resistant to attempts to prevent them from stalking. Thus, highly specialist intervention is required. There is reason to believe that certain types of stalkers are more dangerous than others, and some more responsive to police intervention and other sanctions. One of our team, Dr Lorraine Sheridan, chartered psychologist, has demonstrated that there exist four โtypesโ of stalkers. These are: infatuation harassers, ex-partner stalkers, delusionally fixated stalkers and sadistic stalkers. It is often the case that the different motivations of these stalkers types are apparent only to very few skilled professionals. For instance, an infatuation harassment โoffenderโ and a sadistic stalker may both: send unwanted flowers, leave letters, follow their victim, glean information from the victimโs friends and relatives, appear from nowhere and so on. Yet in spite of such seemingly apparent similarities, the motivation of the two differ dramatically โ one means no harm and the other is determined to inflict maximum damage. Only with an appropriate understanding of the psychology underpinning the behaviour can we ascertain the degree and nature of the threat to the victim, and adopt case management strategies.
Summing up
In conclusion we are in no doubt that there is a variable willingness on the part of the police to investigate these offences, understandable given all the other demands on them. Most of your clients will have a number of staff who are victims of these offences and often will not report it because they do not understand the implications of what they are being subjected to or indeed have any great expectations of an investigation being successful.
About the consultancy
International Risk Control are based in London.
