Date

5-23-2025

Department

Helms School of Government

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Criminal Justice (PhD)

Chair

Marc Weiss

Keywords

Harassment, stalking, victims, laws, challenges, United States, research, recommendations

Disciplines

Law | Legal Studies

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the problem of unresponsive law enforcement faced by legitimate victims of harassment and stalking in the United States and to ultimately develop recommendations to address the problem. A mixed method was used in which qualitative and quantitative data was gathered and analyzed. For this dissertation, a mixed method was applied using interviews, focus group discussions, and surveys to gather data among victims of harassment and stalking. The participants were recruited using convenience sampling in which victims of harassment and stalking were selected from relevant organizations, such as support services. A total of 196 participants were targeted in this dissertation. During the data collection process, surveys and semi-structured interviews were conducted online while focus group discussions were carried out in face-to-face meetings with participants. Ethical principles such as confidentiality, informed consent, and autonomy were considered when engaging participants during the research. Statistical analysis technique was employed to analyze quantitative data from surveys while thematic analysis was used to analyze qualitative data from the interviews and focus group discussions. From the findings, suitable recommendations were developed on how the research problem can be addressed. The purpose of this applied study was to solve the problem of harassment and stalking for victims and to propose training for law enforcement and victim advocates to address the problem.

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