Science AI Journal
Social Sciences · Research topic

Open research questions in Stalking, Cyberstalking, and Harassment

25 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 362 Stalking, Cyberstalking, and Harassment papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • At present, there is extraordinarily limited literature focusing on this state of unrequited and intense human emotion towards another person—a phenomenon characterised by limited by self-awareness and restraint, yet also a state that involves obsession and fixation, sharing cognitive characteristics and behaviours intrinsically tied to stalking behaviours.

    Limerence, Hidden Obsession, Fixation, and Rumination: A Scoping Review of Human Behaviour · 2024 · DOI

  • Due to the recent criminalization of stalking in Portugal and its being an understudied phenomenon, the objective of this study is to assess the perceptions of police officers (n = 1212) about stalking post intimate relationship breakup.

    Post break‐up stalking: Police‐officers' perceptions · 2022 · DOI

  • For instance, what factors place MHPs at greater risk of being stalked, and what perceptions do MHPs have about stalking? The present study investigates these and other understudied questions pertaining to stalking and stalking-related behavior perpetrated toward MHPs in the context of their work, by surveying a sample of 346 registered clinical counselors in British Columbia, Canada.

    Hurting the healers: Stalking and stalking-related behavior perpetrated against counselors. · 2016 · DOI

  • As limited research has examined threat perceptions that deviate from this dyad, the present study investigated whether same-gender and non-binary stalking dyads are perceived as less threatening than man-to-woman dyads.

    University Students' Perceptions of Stalking Threat: The Role of Gender and Relationship Type · 2025 · DOI

  • Despite the fact that violence perpetrated by a parent fundamentally changes family dynamics and children’s perceptions of family security, research on children’s family relations in the course of domestic violence or stalking has rarely addressed children’s sense of belonging.

    Children’s Sense of Belonging in the Context of Post-separation Parental Stalking: Finnish Children’s Experiences of their Family Relations · 2022 · DOI

  • Such analysis is warranted as it will allow the researchers to engage in critical analyses of current anti-stalking statutes and advocate for innovative, sensible, and effective solutions in addressing the crime of stalking.

    An Exploratory Investigation of Traditional Stalking and Cyberstalking Victimization among University Students in Spain and the United States: A Comparative Analysis · 2020 · DOI

  • Although a sizeable body of research on stalking victimization and perpetration currently exists, very little is known about cyberstalking victimization.

    An Exploratory Investigation of Traditional Stalking and Cyberstalking Victimization among University Students in Spain and the United States: A Comparative Analysis · 2020 · DOI

  • Unfortunately, little is known about how states have responded to stalking, especially in light of its occurrence, harm, and case attrition in the criminal justice system.

    Stalking State Statutes: A Critical Content Analysis and Reflection on Social Science Research · 2019 · DOI

  • This study utilized the routine activity perspective and incorporated measures of disability to examine the underexplored relationship between disability status and stalking victimization.

    Stalking Victimization Among College Students: The Role of Disability Within a Lifestyle-Routine Activity Framework · 2017 · DOI

  • However, very little is known about this phenomenon, its potential differentiation from adolescent dating violence and/or bullying and directions to take for future research.

    Adolescent Versus Adult Stalking: A Brief Review · 2016 · DOI

  • Cyberstalking is a relatively understudied area in criminology, with no consensus among scholars as to whether it represents a modified form of stalking or whether it is an entirely new and emerging criminal phenomenon.

    Protection Against Pursuit: A Conceptual and Empirical Comparison of Cyberstalking and Stalking Victimization Among a National Sample · 2012 · DOI

  • Although stalking is a widespread phenomenon that can be caused by different motives, consideration of the psychopathological underpinnings of stalking behaviour is scarce.

    Are Stalkers Disordered or Criminal? Thoughts on the Psychopathology of Stalking · 2011 · DOI

  • Although much has been learnt about the psychological and physical harm caused to victims of stalking and cyberstalking, relatively little is known about the impact of stalking on social behaviour and relationships.

    Reactive stalking: a new perspective on victimisation · 2005 · DOI

  • They conclude that stalking may be associated with a specific set of biological components and they offer suggestions for further research into this pathological emotional/motivational state.

    Some Thoughts on the Neurobiology of Stalking · 2005 · DOI

  • Specific statistics are lacking about the frequency of stalking behavior in hostage/barricade scenarios; however, anecdotal evidence and indirect measures suggest that stalking behavior occurs as an antecedent with enough frequency to warrant attention to the phenomenon.

    Stalking Behavior and Crisis Negotiation · 2004 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Stalking, Cyberstalking, and Harassment

Most recent work

Find a gap in your own Stalking, Cyberstalking, and Harassment sub-topic

This page shows what the Stalking, Cyberstalking, and Harassment literature already flags as unresolved. To narrow it to your specific question, run the guided finder — it searches the gap library on demand and checks candidates against 250M+ OpenAlex works.

Open the Research Gap Finder →

Related topics in Social Sciences

Teacher Education and Leadership Studies
832 open questions
Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis
784 open questions
Online and Blended Learning
745 open questions
Science Education and Pedagogy
597 open questions
Higher Education Research Studies
588 open questions
Mathematics Education and Teaching Techniques
563 open questions
Intimate Partner and Family Violence
519 open questions
Early Childhood Education and Development
486 open questions
25 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 362 Stalking, Cyberstalking, and Harassment papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

Tools for your next paper

Gaps & Literature SearchFind open questions in any field — 120,000+ open gaps mined from our own library.Pre-CheckIs your paper ready? A Tier 1–5 acceptance probability in seconds.Journal FinderA ranked shortlist of target journals from a 17,500-venue index.Duplicate Publication CheckerCheck prior-publication & salami-slicing risk across 8 sources.Citation GeneratorFreeA DOI or title → APA, MLA, Vancouver, Chicago, BibTeX, RIS. No signup.Graphical Abstract MakerFreeTurn your findings into a colorblind-safe graphical abstract.

Compare the category — Honest roundups of the AI research tools, ours listed alongside the alternatives.

Command palette

Jump anywhere, run any action.