Cyberstalking: Research and Evaluation to Enhance Criminal Justice, United States, 2021-2023 (ICPSR 38905)

Version Date: Dec 10, 2025

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Principal Investigator(s):
Sasha Romanosky, RAND Corporation; Douglas C. Ligor, RAND Corporation

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38905.v2

Version V2 ()

  • V2 [2025-12-10]
  • V1 [2025-12-02] unpublished
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Summary

Cyberstalking involves using computing and communications technologies in threatening ways, such as to surveil or harass an individual (online or physically), convey threats, make false accusations about an individual, or share embarrassing information (such as nonconsensual pornography). Cyberstalking has become a mechanism commonly used by intimate-partner abusers--and even by members of extremist groups--to track and access their victims. Exacerbating this problem are new opportunities for victimization brought by digital and internet-connected surveillance devices and technologies.

This study attempted to enhance understanding of cyberstalking by offering the empirical analysis on federal cyberstalking cases. This study included the analysis of the number of federal cyberstalking cases filed over time, the characteristics of these cases (e.g., technologies involved and types of victims), and case outcomes.

Users should note that while there is mention of accompanying qualitative data, these data are not included in this release and will not be released in the future.

Citation

Romanosky, Sasha, and Ligor, Douglas C. Cyberstalking: Research and Evaluation to Enhance Criminal Justice, United States, 2021-2023. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2025-12-10. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38905.v2

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Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (2020-R2-CX-0002)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

County

Restrictions

Access to these data is restricted. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement, specify the reason for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2021 -- 2023

Date of Collection

2021-01-01 -- 2023-03-30
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Study Purpose

The purpose of the study was to enhance understanding of cyberstalking through empirical analysis on federal cyberstalking cases. This analysis included the number of federal cyberstalking cases filed over time, the characteristics of these cases (e.g., technologies involved and types of victims), and the outcomes of these cases.

Study Design

To develop an empirical overview of federal cyberstalking cases, the research team used multiple data sources and methods. Data for federal cyberstalking cases came from the Federal Judicial Center's Integrated Database (IDB) through a data-sharing agreement with the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. These data represented the authoritative source of all criminal cases prosecuted in U.S. federal courts and included administrative information (metadata) about each case: filing date, jurisdiction in which the case was filed, the five most severe charges at filing, termination, and punishments (fines, probation, and prison terms).

In addition, the research team used these data to reconstruct the official case identifier, which was used to search CourtListener (an online legal document website) and PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records, the authoritative source for all U.S. federal pleadings) to retrieve docket filings, including the docket sheet, the criminal complaint, indictment (or superseding indictments), the information, plea agreement, presentence investigation report, and judgment.

The research team searched the IDB for all cases related to 18 U.S.C. 2261--the most general form of the statute--and found 564 potential cyberstalking cases. The docket filings were then reviewed (most commonly the complaint or indictment) to validate that the cases related to cyberstalking. This process revealed 412 federal cyberstalking cases filed between 2010 and 2020.

The research team then developed a codebook to identify the relevant variables to code (the nature of the relationship between the victim and offender, the motive, types of technologies used, duration of stalking behavior, etc.).

Sample

Complete federal crime data were collected from the Federal Judicial Center's Integrated Database. Only cases relating to 18 USC 2261, filed between 01/2010 and 12/2020 were included. Each case was manually validated to ensure it related to cyberstalking (18 USC 2261A(2)), as opposed to broader stalking (18 USC 2261A), or domestic violence (18 USC 2261) charges. The remaining case information were then augmented with coding done as part of this research.

Time Method

Cross-sectional

Universe

Criminal cyberstalking cases prosecuted in federal court between 2010 and 2020.

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Description of Variables

This study included variables regarding administrative court data (case type, court dates), court outcomes (fine amounts, prison time sentenced, probation incurred, release type), and description of cyberstalking (methods of cyberstalking used, relation to victim, general descriptions of offense).

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Original Release Date

2025-12-02

Version History

2025-12-10 Correcting a display issue in the ICPSR codebooks and SSVD.

2025-12-02 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

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Notes

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