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Could repeated writing of malicious comments about a certain celebrity in cyberspace be classified as stalking? Certainly a number of celebrities have suffered from stalkers in the real world, including John Lennon, who was shot dead by one in December 1980.
The U.S. National Institute of Justice defined the term as ¡°a course of conduct directed at a specific person that involves repeated (two or more occasions) visual or physical proximity, nonconsensual communication, or verbal, written, or implied threats, or a combination thereof, that would cause a reasonable person fear." This could bring within the purview even repeated Internet rumors about actress Choi Jin-sil, who recently killed herself.
It can also be a problem for ordinary people. In a poll of 8,000 men and 8,000 women in 1998, the NIJ found that 8 percent of women and 2 percent of men had been stalked. The figures roughly translate into 9.4 million women and 2.3 million men. Most of the stalkers were acquaintances of the victims, and only 23 percent of women and 36 percent of men were stalked by somebody they did not know.
Most stalkers had a major personal breakdown and usually had no job or no close friend of the opposite sex. The first major work on stalking in Germany was conducted from 2002 to 2005 by Isabel Wondrak, a psychologist at Darmstadt University of Technology who interviewed 100 stalkers and analyzed their state of mind.
The most striking result was that they lacked a sense of reality. Eighty percent of the stalkers responded they would continue stalking even though it was clear that they would not be able to achieve whatever their goal was. They insisted on stalking because they believed they and the victim were meant to be together, and that they had a responsibility to take care of the victim. The mental state of the stalkers appeared to be abnormal: more than 60 percent of them had suffered from depression and one-third of them suffered from anxiety disorder.
The study confirms that stalking inflicted a long period of mental suffering on the victims. Two-thirds of the victims experienced depression, anxiety disorder, panic attacks and sleeping disorder, and the stress made them petulant, aggressive and hypersensitive. About 25 percent confessed that they attempted suicide. The result of the study clearly shows how a stalker can destroy another person¡¯s life.
The best way to protect oneself from stalking is not responding to a stalker, according to a study. Turning a blind eye to malicious rumors and comments on the Internet, for example, would be the best way for celebrities to stave off what could be a form of stalking.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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