Stalking is a common crime on Otterbein’s campus, according to the 2024 crime report. Stalking can have dangerous consequences, however students may be willing to confront them or even recognize certain behaviors as stalking.
Approximately 13.5 million people are stalked in a one-year period in the U.S. according to the Stalking Prevention Awareness and Resource Center. Students, particularly young adults ages 18-24, experience the highest rate of stalking among adults. However, 43% of college stalking victims who meet the legal criteria of stalking do not identify their experiences as stalking.
Stalking, as defined by the Violence Against Women Act, is a pattern of behavior targeting a specific individual that would cause a reasonable person to either fear for the individual’s safety or the safety of others, or suffer substantial emotional distress.
According to Julie Saker, the dean of students and Title IX coordinator, most stalking cases at Otterbein do not involve imminent danger. However, she emphasizes that students should report behaviors that make them uncomfortable or disrupt their day-to-day activities.
Saker says that in some cases, students may not be willing to confront a person making unwanted interactions, and due to differences in social skills, the person making unwanted interactions may not be aware they’re making someone uncomfortable if they haven’t explicitly been told to stop. She says that reporting the behaviors to the Title IX office can allow her to make that person aware of what they’re doing and help resolve the problem.
“What we'll do is what's called a no contact agreement in which both parties, because there’s no one found guilty of anything ... both parties agree to have no contact with the other. And that seems to work pretty well,” Saker said. She says that oftentimes people don’t want to file charges, they just want the behavior to stop.
Stalking can involve various behaviors, such as monitoring activities, harassment, threats or showing up uninvited. However, some activities, such as unwanted messages and phone calls or sending gifts, can be overlooked despite their violation of boundaries.
“The stereotypical thought of [stalking] is like someone standing outside, looking in a window ... they might memorize someone’s schedule and follow them around,” said senior art major Emily Rogers. She also says she hasn’t had any experience with stalking and that it’s not necessarily a concern for her.
However, stalking has been documented as a common crime on Otterbein’s campus, though cases fluctuate year-to-year.
In past Annual Campus Security and Fire Safety reports, which are compiled by the Otterbein Police Department (OPD) per the Clery Act, there were 57 cases of stalking from 2014-2023. By comparison, other common crimes include 67 cases of burglary, 37 cases of rape, 17 cases of dating violence and 17 cases of fondling.
According to the 2024 crime report, released Sept. 26, Otterbein had four stalking cases in the 2023 calendar year. In 2022 and 2021, there were eight and 11 cases of stalking respectively, though Otterbein Chief of Police Paul Weiner says there’s no clear trend in the cases.
“Each situation is its own unique situation. There's not a cookie-cutter repetitive pattern with stalking,” Weiner said. “It just depends on the parties involved, the life situations they're in and then the characters of the parties involved.”
Weiner said stalking affects both students and staff, but the action taken in stalking cases can vary based on a given case. He says since Otterbein is relatively small, OPD can spend more time on cases and work more closely with victims than regular law enforcement.
“We take [the cases] all very serious because nationally, the statistics show that there's bad outcomes potentially in every case," Weiner said. “We have to kind of look at the facts as they exist and then determine the best course of action to go forward with that unique case.”
Otterbein is the recipient of a $300,000 grant which funds prevention programs related to stalking, sexual assault and domestic violence, like the Fair Play program for student-athletes. Otterbein also offers a Team Consent workshop hosted by the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Resources Center (WGSRC).
Rogers says she did Team Consent but was already familiar with the content.
“It didn’t really feel like a lot of new information. It kind of felt like things that you hear people repeat like high school through college,” Rogers said.
However, even if students don’t receive extensive training, Saker says it’s important they know resources are available.
“Some of this [training], people forget it as soon as they go through it. ... But what's important is that people leave with the message [that] if something doesn't feel right, there is a place to go to get answers,” Saker said.
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