University of Guelph PhD candidate Olivia Peters has been studying Canadian women’s experiences of intimate partner stalking. Peters spoke with People First Radio to share insights from her research, which involved in depth interviews with 20 women who identified as having experienced stalking.
Peters said some women had to feign fear to be taken seriously.
“A lot of times they would go, they would say, I’m not able to live life normally, this person is able to basically do whatever they want as far as stalking, I’m having to change everything about my life. I can’t go to work, or I’m not able to take the same route, I can’t go to the same grocery store, I can’t take the same path to and from places…I’m not using my social media anymore, because I’m being harassed that way, so basically the stalker had free reign over being able to stalk, but police would go, ‘well, you don’t seem terribly fearful.'”
“ They wouldn’t be afforded any protections or sometimes, a lot of the times actually, case files weren’t even opened even after repeatedly reaching out.”
Peters says rather than fear, a person’s inability to live their life normally should be grounds for protection orders.
Earlier this month she gave a webinar sharing insights into her findings for AVA (The Alliance against Violence and Adversity.)
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