Stalking is define as 'the wilful, malicious and repeated following or harassment of another person threatening his or her safety', with celebrity stalking constituting for about 1% of stalking cases.
Two types of stalking have been identified; love obsession and simple obsessional stalking. Love obsession is a fixation with another person (such as a celebrity) which they have no personal connection with. Stalkers of this type suffer from delusional thought patterns and may suffer a mental disorder such as schizophrenia. Most are unable to create real relationships therefore create fictitious ones which they try to act out in real life. The second type, simple obsessional stalking, is more common and distinguished by some previous personal relationship having existed between the stalker and the victim before the stalking behaviour began.
The two main explanations for stalking are personality theory and attachment theory. Personality theory suggests stalking is an extreme form of celebrity worship by those who score highly in the borderline-pathological dimensions of the CAS (celebrity attitude scale). Attachment theory proposes that celebrity stalking may be an extreme manifestation of the insecure attachment type.
Bartholomew and Horowitz proposed a model of adult attachment styles. One of these is 'pre-occupied' and has been linked to celebrity stalking. Individuals with this type of attachment have a negative self-model and a positive other-model. Therefore the individual seeks validation from others. Meloy claims that celebrity stalking could be indicative of abnormal attachments. Individuals with this attachment may engage in celebrity stalking because they over value others and perceive contact with celebrities will indicate they are accepted and valued, thus challenging their negative views on themselves.
Tonin found a significant number of stalkers were found to have insecure attachments compared to a control group. Therefore this supports the theory that certain attachment types can lead to increased likelihood of stalking. However, self-report measures were used to measure attachment type through the use of questionnaires. This may lack reliability as they are often subjective to how the individual was feeling that day therefore their assessed attachment type may not be accurate. Additionally, questionnaires were used to assess the stalkers' retrospective childhood attachment styles. Such measures require the individual to answer questionnaires about their childhood which they may not remember leading them to guess answers to questions further hindering reliability and validity in determining their attachment type. Therefore firm conclusions cannot be drawn between attachment and susceptibility of stalking.
Maltby et al claimed that the tendency to engage in stalking behaviour may actually be indicative of underlying psychopathology. They found scores of OCD correlated with measures of the CAS intense-personal and borderline-pathological. Stalkers sometimes behave irrationally toward their victims, which may reflect underlying psychopathology. However, this is correlational data and cause and effect cannot be determined. Not everyone with OCD develops stalking behaviour and not all stalkers will have OCD tendencies, therefore to assume this is reductionist. Additionally, this explanation is deterministic and ignores the role of free will humans have in behaviour. Individuals have the capability to control whether they stalk someone however this is ignored in research.
Research into stalking has real world applications for example the creation of anti-stalking legislation. In the UK and US there are anti-stalking laws. The issue with these laws is that there are still basic rights of freedom and fans are encouraged to be adoring. It may become difficult to assess when fans behaviour becomes stalking. Therefore this highlights the importance of research into stalking as it aids in determining what factors make an individual most likely to display stalking behaviour, helping to protect celebrities.
However, such research evidence may be socially sensitive as it may lead to stigmatising against or observation of those with such traits or personality types. Even though it is not certain that they will develop stalking behaviour.
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