Introduction

Approaches to managing stalking behaviours have been discussed at various points in the book, most particularly in the chapters on the stalker typology and on erotomania. The focus has been, to this point, almost exclusively on how best to end the stalking behaviours. The extent of the disruption that stalking brings to the life of the perpetrator as well as the victim has been acknowledged but rarely given attention. Sympathy for the stalker is not a proposition with immediate appeal. And yet these are often a lonely, inadequate, disturbed, if not frankly mentally ill, group of human beings. Their stalking reflects a range of influences among which can be remediable mental disorders as well as modifiable characterological and social skills deficits. Furthermore, it is the distress and disruption experienced by the stalkers that can potentially be used as a lever to alter their behaviour and release the victims from continuing distress and disruption.

A false dichotomy is often created in the management of mentally disordered offenders between the social imperatives of prevention and punishment and the health responsibilities of treatment and care. The issue of how to respond to a mentally abnormal offender is sometimes presented as a choice between either responding to the claims of the victim and the wider society or responding to the needs of the offender.