Recommended Reading

To order the following books through Amazon.com, simply click on the book and you will be taken directly to the site.

 

How to Stop a Stalker

Veteran Detective Mike Proctor Tells You:  How to identify a stalker, how they stalk and why they do it, what to do if you are being stalked, how to collect evidence, how to get the justice system on your side, and what to do in court.

If you are a victim of a stalker or suspect that you might be, this book will give you the means, not only to protect yourself, but ultimately to put the stalker behind bars.  Veteran detective Mike Proctor, who has investigated and consulted on over 110 stalking cases (all of which have been successfully prosecuted), has written this essential survival guide for anyone who becomes the target of one of these sociopaths. Proctor lays out the typical patterns of stalker behavior: leaving bizarre gifts and notes; vandalism; surveillance; persistent contact through various means of harassment (phones, pagers, letters); breaking and entering, either to steal some personal item or just to let the victim know that his or her privacy has been violated: and a host of other nuisance tactics, including harassment of family members and family pets, filing legal actions, disrupting utility services, and threats of violence. With his wealth of experience, Proctor offers keen insights into the pathological mindset of the stalker: For example, stalking problems often arise in a situation of domestic violence; many stalkers are fantasy driven, often believing that the victim is in love with them; they rarely take responsibility for their actions, blaming others for making them do what they do; most have stalked more than one person; and revenge by disgruntled employees against a business associates or employers is also an increasingly common motive in stalking.

This excellent handbook on a serious social problem will be of great use to current or potential stalking victims, law enforcement officials, personnel departments, and employers.

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How to Be Invisible  Revised Edition 

The Essential Guide to Protecting Your Personal Privacy, Your Assets, and Your Life.

Sweeping changes since 9/11 have encroached upon personal privacy as never before.  This new edition of J.J. Luna's classic manual covers everything from driver's licenses and pizza deliveries to anonymous ownership of vehicles and real estate.

FROM CYBERSPACE TO CRAWL SPACES, innovations in information gathering have left the private life of the average person open to scrutiny and, worse, exploitation.  In this thoroughly revised update of his immensely popular guide How To Be Invisible, J.J. Luna shows you how to protect yourself from these information predators by securing your vehicle and real estate ownership, your bank accounts, your business dealings, your computer files, your home address, and more.

J.J. Luna, a highly trained and experienced security consultant, shows you how to achieve the privacy you crave and deserve, whether you just want to shield yourself from casual scrutiny or take your life savings with you and disappear without a trace.  Whatever your needs, Luna reveals the shocking secrets of private detectives and other seekers of personal information and then shows how to make a serious commitment to safeguarding yourself.

There is a prevailing sense in our society that true privacy is a thing of the past.  Filled with vivid real-life stories drawn from the headlines and from Luna's own consulting experience, How to Be Invisible, Revised Edition is a critical antidote to the privacy concerns that continue only to grow in magnitude as new and more efficient ways of undermining our personal security are made available.  Privacy is a commonly lamented casualty of the Information Age and of the world's changing climate - but that doesn't mean you have to stand for it.

For additional information on maintaining your privacy, go to http://canaryislandspress.com.  See the Q & A page, and check out the following book:

Dirty Tricks for Savvy Chicks     How to use small but effective weapons for self defense.

The author can be contacted at JJL@canaryislandpress.com.  For a faster response, put E.S.I.A. in the subject line.

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The Gift of Fear 

Survival Signals That Protect Us From Violence by Gavin de Becker

We all know there are plenty of reasons to fear people from time to time.  The question is, what are those times?  A stranger in a deserted parking lot offers to help carry a woman's groceries.  Is he a good Samaritan or is he after something else?  A fired employee says, "you'll be sorry."   Will be return with a gun?  After their first date, a man tells a woman it is their "destiny" to be together.  What will he do when she rejects him?   A teenager is obsessed with "death metal" music and fascinated with guns.   Is he going to kill someone?  A mother has an uneasy feeling about the nice baby-sitter she's just hired.  Should she cancel her plans?  A man is threatened by his girlfriend's angry ex-husband.  Should he go to the police?

Now, Gavin de Becker, the nation's leading expert on predicting violent behavior, proves that we are all qualified to answer life's highest-stakes questions.  "True fear is a gift," he says, because it is a survival signal that sounds only in the presence of danger; yet unwarranted fear has assumed a power over us that it holds over no other creature on earth.  It need not be this way.

In this extraordinary, groundbreaking book, de Becker shows that you can already predict violent behavior.  Through dozens of compelling stories from his own career, he lays out the pieces of the human violence puzzle and shows how you can solve it by paying attention to the subtle - and sometimes blatant - signals of intuition.  As he says, "you can refuse to be a victim."

Filled with unique and surprising insights into human behavior, The Gift of Fear will help you separate real from imagined danger, give you confidence in a sometimes threatening world, and make your life measurably safer.

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Stalkers and Their Victims 

Paul E. Mullen, Michele Pathe, Rosemary Purcell

Over recent years, stalking has emerged as a major social and legal issue, and also as a clinical problem for mental health professionals.  This absorbing and informative book draws on the authors' extensive experience of working with stalkers and their victims in the clinical setting, and makes a major contribution toward understanding the nature, causes, impact and management of stalking.

Topics included: The growing recognition of stalking as an issue of public legal and scientific concern. The definition, classification and epidemiology of stalking. The impact on victims, and how this may be reduced. Same-gender stalking, stalking by proxy, workplace stalking, and the stalking of professionals, such as doctors and teachers.  The association of stalking with physical and sexual assault.  Anti-stalking laws internationally.  Support and practical advice for victims of stalking.  Assessing and managing the stalker.

With many case histories, and an approach that is at once scholarly and highly practical, this will be the definitive guide and reference for anyone with a professional or academic interest in this complex behavior.

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The Psychology of Stalking

Edited by J. Reid Meloy

The Psychology of Stalking is the first scholarly book on stalking ever published.  Virtually every serious writer and researcher in this area of criminal psychopathology has contributed to this comprehensive resource.  These chapters explore stalking from social, psychiatric, psychological, legal, and behavioral perspectives.  New thinking and data are presented on threats, pursuit characteristics, psychiatric diagnoses, offender - victim typologies, cyberstalking, false victimization syndrome, erotomania, stalking and domestic violence, stalking of public figures, and many more aspects of stalking.  This landmark text is of interest to both professionals and other thoughtful individuals who recognize the serious nature of this ominous social behavior at the end of the millennium.

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Surviving a Stalker

Everything You Need To Know To Keep Yourself Safe by Linden Gross

Most people believe that stalkers only target the rich and famous, not the average citizen.  The truth is, stalking is one of the most prevalent yet overlooks forms of domestic violence in America today, with an estimated 1.4 million people nationwide stalked each year.  And that figure does not even include the rising number of people being harassed on the Internet.

Surviving A Stalker, the ultimate practical guidebook to surviving stalking, provides all the necessary tools you need to handle obsessive attention and to regain control of your life.  Journalist and stalking expert Linden Gross offers a wealth of invaluable guidance, including: How to recognize and control those natural reactions that might put you at risk.  How to handle inappropriate attention on-and off-line and break the stalking cycle.  How to protect your privacy and safety as well as that of your loved ones.

Gross explains how these dangerous obsessions begin, the patterns they take, and what potential victims can do before the nightmare becomes a reality.  Though a multitude of case studies, medical and other professionals who deal with stalking will gain a clearer understanding of the crime, the toll it takes, and how to handle it.

Surviving A Stalker will help all victims, as well as potential victims, keep themselves safe and be a vital resource for all professionals who counsel them.

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Safety for Stalking Victims

How to save your privacy, your sanity, and your life by Lyn Bates

Stalking is a serious crime that disproportionately affects and endangers women.  The Nation Institute of Justice says one in every 12 women and one in every 20 men will be stalked in their lifetimes.

Some stalkers make phone calls, send messages, or deliver "gifts."  Some follow their victims home, vandalize property, make threats, or kill pets.  Some stalkers even attempt rape, kidnapping, or murder.  And some succeed.  Being the target of an obsessed person is a frightening experience.   But it isn't necessary to live in fear.  Leering how to be safe is the the key.

Topics include: Who stalks, who is stalked, and why.   Evaluating the seriousness of the situation.  Replacing terror with sensible precautions.  Restraining orders - good or bad.  Disappearing - why, when and how.  Protecting your children.  Self defense - what works, what doesn't.   Safety on a budget.  Maintaining your privacy.  Strategies that don't work. Helpful web sites and organizations.

Using scenarios based on real stalking cases, this book overflows with detailed, practical strategies to put you in control of your situation, and let you break the cycle of terror.

Mistakes by the legal system, employers, or even family members can make the situation worse.  If you work with stalking victims, or are concerned about one, you need this information, too.

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Stalking: Surviving the Hidden Terror 

Paula LaRue, M.S.

Don't let a stalker take control of your life!  Are you being followed?  Receiving unwanted phone calls, or gifts?  Does someone appear at your work, or leave messages on your car?

Stalking in a crime that can send terror racing through a victim's body.  It can develop slowly and escalate to physical violence, even murder.

Until recently, little help was available to stalking victims.  Victims have had to move and change their lives.  But now, there is hope.  An increasing number of stalking victims are reclaiming their lives.

STALKING: Surviving the Hidden Terror explains stalking, how to avoid becoming a victim, and what to do if you are being stalked.  It will explore the role and process of the police and the judicial system.  It will examine the reaction of friends, family, the police, co-workers and even the victims themselves.   It tells the real life stories of actual stalking victims who are winning the battle against their stalkers.  People who, against all odds, refused to give up control of their lives.

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Stalking:  A Handbook for Victims

Emily Spence-Diehl

If your reading this, chances are a stalker has begun to rob you of your sense of control over your life.  You may be overwhelmed and unsure of where to turn next.  If so, this book is for you.  It is written under the guiding belief that knowledge is power.  By arming you with resources, choices, safety tips and stalker information; I hope you will be able to turn the tide against the stalker and regain some power and control over you life.

I want to first emphasize the purpose of this book is to present you with options not directions.  It is a handbook not an instruction manual.   There is no "one size fits all" approach to stalking intervention.   As you gather information, please know that you must make the choices that work best for you.  Trust your gut feelings.  If I have I have discussed an option that you believe won't work for you - by all means disregard it!  Police officers, counselors, victim advocates, prosecutors, friends, co-workers and family are all part of a team intended to help you - but you are the team leader.

I wish to commend you for taking steps to gain back control.  You are experiencing one of the very worst crimes against humanity.   You may be feeling isolated, misunderstood and terrified - a prisoner in your own home.  I sincerely hope that the information you find here will arm you with helpful knowledge and shed light on the path towards healing and safety.  Though there are no easy answers, please know that you are not alone.  Help is out there and together we can wage a war against this insidious crime.

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I Know You Really Love

Doreen Orion, M.D.

A psychiatrist's account of stalking and obsessive love.  Locked in a ward of an Arizona psychiatric hospital, the patient called Fran looked harmless, even ordinary.   Meeting her, psychiatrist Doreen Orion had no warning that Fran suffered from erotomania, the bizarre mental disorder that causes stalkers to believe their victims are in love with them - and no inkling that she would be the next target of Fran's twisted, dangerous mind.

Now Dr. Orion reveals how she has been spied upon, accosted, and hunted for eight years, living in fear of her life and the lives of those closest to her.  Changing her address and job, getting restraining orders and having Fran arrested, have all failed to end Fran's obsessive behavior, which continues to this day.

Recounting the ordeals of Madonna, David Letterman, and scores of others who have been terrorized by stalkers, Dr. Orion alerts potential victims to this increasingly deadly disorder - and tells what society must do to protect us all from those who would kill for love.

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Violent Attachments

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Without Conscience

The Disturbing World of The Psychopaths Among Us

Dr. Robert D. Hare

We often think of psychopaths as the disturbed criminals who capture headlines and crowd the nation's prisons.  But not all psychopaths are killers.  They are more likely to be men and women you know who move through life with supreme self-confidence but without a conscience.  Based on twenty-five years of groundbreaking research, Without Conscience is a fascinating journey into the minds of these dangerous individuals, many of whom: live on the edge, often changing jobs, schools, relationships, and homes, never feel guilty - even when they are caught, act cold and distant one moment and intensely emotional the next, lack empathy living for the moment without regard for the welfare of others, scheme their way into money, power, and relationships.

In fact, psychopaths have none of the hallmarks of mental illness.  They appear normal, but they're not - they are manipulative, dangerous individuals who live and work in our communities, often leaving behind a wake of broken hearts, empty wallets and ruined lives.  Are they born heartless, or created by circumstance?  How and why do they get away with cheating, conning and murder?   Are they mad or simply bad?  How can we recognize and steer clear of these predatory people?  From society's most notorious killers to little-known, everyday hustlers, Without Conscience explores the psychopath's shocking patterns and exposes one of the most frightening, often-hidden social problems affecting our lives today.

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The Stalking of Kristin

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Protecting the Gift