DeKALB | The prevalence of stalking in society and its harsh impact on the lives of victims was the subject of a speech given Thursday by Michelle Garcia, director of the Stalking Resource Center at the National Center for Victims of Crime.

The Women’s Resource Center and the College Panhellenic Council sponsored the visit organized to inform students and faculty about the reality of stalking on campus.

“Stalking is a pattern of behavior directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear,” Garcia said. She added that when talking about stalking, most behaviors are not necessarily criminal. Things such as calling, text messaging, e-mailing and checking for updates on someone’s social networking site become stalking when they are done repeatedly.

Stalking affects a startling amount of people in the United States.

“3.4 million people were stalked in a one-year period,” Garcia said. She added that the rates of stalking on college campuses are higher than in the general population.

Garcia said that victims are usually between the ages of 18 to 24 and will most often know their stalker in some way. She added that 80.3 million female campus stalking victims knew their stalkers.

The average length of time a stalking occurs is two years, Garcia said. On campus, the period of time is usually shorter because of the transient nature of students, she added.

Stalking is instigated by many different things.

Garcia said that stalkers usually do so out of rejection, obsession, power, because they are planning a crime or simply because the can.

“Most of these offenders are not crazy, not psycho, and do not have a diagnosable mental illness,” Garcia said.

The best thing that can be done to deter stalking is to spread awareness.

“I’m encouraging all of you to look at things critically and have conversations,” Garcia said. “All of us can play a role in stopping behaviors like stalking.”

Some members of the audience found the lecture to be eye-opening.

“It made me realize how real it could be,” said Michelle Ryan, junior early child education major.

“I look back and think wow, I have had people do that.”

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