Examining the Criminal Justice System’s Response to Stalking

ABOUT

Very few studies have examined the criminal justice systems’ response to stalking, particularly officer and prosecutorial decision-making. Research to date has shown that officers have a limited understanding of stalking within the context of domestic violence. Even more, few cases are referred to prosecutors and even fewer result in convictions for stalking. Thus, more research is needed to isolate predictors of charging decisions and prosecutions of stalking that differ from factors related to these decisions in non-stalking-related domestic violence cases. Understanding decision-making processes provides salient implications for training needs, as well as investigative and prosecutorial responses to stalking and domestic violence.

As such, the first specific aim of this study was to: To understand correlates of prosecutorial decision-making, particularly the decision to file charges. The second specific aim was to: Identify factors associated with police officers’ decision to charge DV offenders with stalking.

Associated faculty

Patrick Q. Brady, Ph.D. Principal Investigator

Patrick Brady received a PhD in Criminal Justice from Sam Houston State University in 2017. In 2010, he graduated from Weber State University in Ogden, Utah with a Bachelor of Art’s degree in Forensic Science, and a minor in Sociology. He continued on an academic adventure to Boise State University, where he received a Master of Art’s degree in Criminal Justice in 2012. Patrick has spent the majority of his professional career working with youth in state-run treatment centers and therapeutic boarding schools. After obtaining his Master’s degree, he worked with a statewide domestic and sexual violence coalition to implement adolescent relationship abuse and sexual violence prevention programming in middle and high schools throughout Idaho. Patrick’s primary research interests focus on reducing burnout among police officers and improving university and justice system response to intimate partner stalking

Bradford Reyns, Ph.D. Co-PI

Brad Reyns is a criminologist specializing in issues surrounding criminal victimization. He received his Ph.D. in criminal justice from the University of Cincinnati in 2010 and has been at Weber State University since 2011. His research spans the field of victimology, but has mostly focused on theories of victimization, victim decision making, and the relationship between technology use and victimization.

Rebecca Dreke

Rebecca Dreke is currently the Director of Training & Technical Assistance at the Stalking Resource Center (SRC) at the National Center for Victims of Crime. Dreke is a trainer on crime victim rights, technical assistance provider and manager of a nationally recognized program on stalking. She has over 15 years of experience working on stalking, intimate partner violence and sexual assault advocacy. As a director at the SRC, Dreke oversees a nationally recognized program on stalking, develops original curriculum and provides training for law enforcement, prosecutors, victim service providers and criminal and civil justice professionals as well as other specialists on all aspects of stalking, including the use of technology to stalk, campus stalking and stalking and sexual assault. Dreke also has authored publications for the field on stalking support groups, model campus policies to address stalking, methodology of stalking measurement, and guides for advocates. Dreke’s extensive background in the field of stalking provide an invaluable asset to the Consortium team, as well as her perspective as a practitioner and access to networks involved in the field of stalking.