Leana Bouffard, chair of the Department of Sociology, and Jeff Bouffard, professor of sociology, recently published a study titled, “Still in the Shadows: Stalking Prosecution Rates’ Unresponsiveness to Increased Legislative Attention,” in the Journal of Criminal Justice.
This exploratory study used official court data to examine trends in stalking cases relative to two major revisions of Texas’ anti-stalking statutes. Results demonstrate that trends in arrests with intent to prosecute were stable over time and that very few cases of stalking were prosecuted in this jurisdiction during any given year, even as the trend for the broader category of harassment charges showed escalation over time, consistent with population growth and other extra-legal influences. These findings suggest that stalking cases remain rarely prosecuted despite increasing awareness and provisions for enhanced penalties.