Nearly 20% of Texans claim to have been victimized by a stalker (via, if that wasn’t already clear).
The 18 percent who reported being stalked reported an overall 453 stalking incidents over the 24 months covered by the survey. The most frequent instance was repeated telephone calls, reported by 35 percent of victims, followed closely by 34 percent of victims who said their stalker stole items from their house, car or workplace.
[…] Only 43 percent of the victims reported their experience to police, and just 20 percent of those said their stalker had been arrested.
Doing some quick math, that means that about 1.5% of people in Texas have had a stalker arrested. WTF? Here in Pennsylvania I know maybe one person who can claim to have been stalked and that’s stretching the definition. Sometimes an ex needs a firm reminder that it’s time to move on.
Leaving College aside, where weird behavior is pretty much the norm, I can’t think of anywhere I have lived (Connecticut, Colorado, PA) where stalking felt like the kind of pandemic that it apparently is in Texas. If anybody feels like correcting me or explaining, have at it in the comments.
scarshapedstar
(insert Facebook joke here)
sidereal
Ah, but that doesn’t mean they’re distinct stalkers. It’s possible that Texas has a small number of extraordinarily busy stalkers who manage to circumvent multiple arrests.
But seriously, my first guess was that it was weighted very heavily towards women. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was 1% of men and 40% of women, given the methodology (being called repeatedly, followed, etc). But according to the article, males and females reported at about the same rate. Bizarre.
Richard 23
Doesn’t Darrell live in Texas? Haven’t seen him in awhile. Maybe he was recently arrested. Maybe stalking reports will go down now.
stickler
It’s Texas. Craziest, most dangerous, batshit-insane corner of our Republic. And they tried to leave once already. We should have let them go.
Fuck Texas. Give the whole damned patch of ground back to Mexico.
J. King
I lived in Texas for 7 years and I was never stalked. Not even once. What’s the matter with me?
S
Maybe you and your friends are just not interesting enough to be stalked.
How many Hooters employees are there per capita in Texas compared to elsewhere?
RSA
Time for some pop sociology that’s probably completely wrong: Texas has this continuing love affair with a romanticized Old West. There’s a higher concentration of people wearing cowboy hats and cowboy boots in Texas than I’ve seen anywhere else in the U.S. So suppose you suffer some slight to your honor, real or imagined. You’ve got the boots; you’ve got the hat; you’ve got the gun, and possibly even a concealed-carry permit. What would the average bit character on a TV western do? He’d settle it himself. Nowadays that looks like stalking, but in the good old days it’s just what people did.
Paul Wartenberg
I think Florida has a 2 to 1 advantage in Hooters waitresses over Tejas. On strip clubs, I think we’re even.
Where there any studies on stalking stats in the other states, or is this a serious epidemic in Tejas only?
Mr Furious
Buncha paranoid assholes.
And for all the swagger it also sounds like they’re pussies to boot.
Krista
Hey, don’t freak me out. I just discovered that site, and have been joyously wallowing in it for days.
Redleg
These Texans think they’re bding stalked by Islamofascists who are bent on making them face Mecca when they pray. Pres. Bush has gotten them all stirred up over the global imperial designs of the Islamofascists. These Texans are a gullible bunch.
machine
Speaking as a gullible, batshit-insane Texan, I can attest that once I thought was being stalked by at least eight or nine guys, but on that day I learned the hazards of looking a contractor parked at Home Depot.