Stalking is a very dangerous situation to be involved with. The effects it has on women can be long lasting and can also cause them to have to change their life completely. Because stalking is such a violation of one's privacy, it causes the victim to live in constant fear. The fear can be caused by many things, one being that knowing you are being watched and followed can by very disturbing another is that if the victim is receiving threatening messages or has already had a violent encounter with her victim it can cause her to fear living her normal day to day life. As a result victims often changed different aspects of their life, things like where they live, and where they work. Some women can be so scared from the experience that she might go into some kind of hiding and never really be fully functional in society. Some common side affects that victims get as a result of being stalked is anxiety, difficulty sleeping, some may turn to the use of drugs and alcohol, and some victims can develop mild cases of post traumatic stress disorder. Other ways that stalking effects women is that they often feel like they have lost control in their own life. Some victims have to go to counseling to get through the issue and a lot of times become more paranoid about where they are, what they are doing and who is around them. Other issues that stalking causes for the victims is that they can lose time from work and if they work an hourly job then they are loosing wages that they could have earned. Lost wages can affect other parts of their life, like being able to make payments are credit cards, house, car, school etc. Other financial problems that they victim may have is that they could have damaged property and if they have to pay for lawyers and other court fees, the financial issues could be very hard on the victims.They may also develop depression symptoms and as a result sometimes it could lead to suicide. Being stalked can also effect their social life and their use of social networking sites. the sociological effects of cyber stalking is that the victim will have to wait longer for resolution because catching cyber stalkers can be extremely difficult because the authorities and the victim may have never seen the stalker and may not even know where the stalker is from. The offender could live a few states away and could be stalking the girl for years before she realizes it.
More broader sociological effects of women is that victims of stalking and parents can further the social norms of how females are treated and raised. From a young age females are taught that they are not as strong and independent as men and parents might say things like "you can't do that because you're a girl" or "your brother doesn't have to follow the same rules as you because he is a boy." Adding another threat to females safety only gives parents more reasons to keep using excuses as to why females are treated differently and will only further contribute to the belief that women are more vulnerable than men.
More broader sociological effects of women is that victims of stalking and parents can further the social norms of how females are treated and raised. From a young age females are taught that they are not as strong and independent as men and parents might say things like "you can't do that because you're a girl" or "your brother doesn't have to follow the same rules as you because he is a boy." Adding another threat to females safety only gives parents more reasons to keep using excuses as to why females are treated differently and will only further contribute to the belief that women are more vulnerable than men.
