ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the constructionist analysis by exploring how earlier, unsuccessful typifications evolved into the successful construction of stalking as a crime problem. It discusses unsuccessful claims about what would later be called stalking. The chapter then discusses the importance of celebrity victims during the emergence of the stalking problem. It examines how the definition of stalking changed as the press, legislators, and activists began linking stalking to domestic violence. The chapter also combines qualitative interpretation with quantitative data on changing typifications of stalking. It explains how a new set of typifying claims mobilized cultural and organizational resources, making possible the successful construction of stalking as a new crime problem. The chapter further examines several dozen examples of claimsmaking about stalking, including videotapes and transcripts of television news broadcasts and talk shows; articles from newspapers, popular magazines, law reviews, and scholarly journals; and transcripts of Congressional proceedings.
