The research shows that most acts of stalking target the mothers but that the victimizing impact of those acts on children also merits examination. Children have the right to be recognized as agents in their own right and as victims of violence who need help in social welfare and healthcare services and in the legal process. As Professor Merja Laitinen points out,

Stalking produces a situation akin to terrorism day in and day out in the lives of children and mothers. The threat is constantly present; victims put themselves on high alert, not knowing when the next attack will occur or what it will be like.

Another salient finding of the studies done is that stalking takes on different forms in children’s everyday lives. The emotional violence involved creates an atmosphere of fear and insecurity – the result of being spied on and followed and of verbal and physical threats. Some acts of stalking are disguised, meaning that the perpetrator portrays malevolent actions as being well-intentioned ones. These include performances of love, caring and longing as well as neglect of children’s need for care. Stalking also involves exploitation of children: they become victimized as tools, agents and targets of stalking and as informants reporting on their mothers. As Merja Laitinen and Researcher Anna Nikupeteri explain,

Physical violence, violent acts and the threat of death are present in the stalking processes: one sees social isolation, violent abduction of children, revenge against mothers through children, and abuse of the children.

The research shows that stalking has a profound impact on children’s sense of security, an emotional state that can be defined in terms of three overlapping dimensions. In eroded security, children build up a picture of the family’s situation on the basis of discrete episodes. Lost security is characterized by rational knowledge on stalking and its extreme consequences, that is, serious acts of violence and the threat of death. Reconstructed security is a form that requires active agency on the part of a child. Anna Nikupeteri points out implications for practice:

The research findings highlight that professionals whom victims encounter in the social welfare and healthcare services and in the legal process should pay a good deal more attention to the conflicted and complicated role and situation in which children find themselves when they are targets of stalking.

In addition, the studies point to a need for interventions to consider the secure, intimate relations children have. Key figures in producing and reinforcing children’s sense of security are people close to children, the professionals children engage with in their everyday environments, such as daycare and school, and social welfare and healthcare professionals.

Merja Laitinen describes what this means for practitioners:

Identifying and dealing with stalking in children’s everyday lives requires special knowledge and expertise, and thus the issue has implications for training. If stalking is addressed in the framework of “ordinary” intimate partner and domestic violence, many things go unnoticed and unheard.

The studies have been carried out as an intense dialogue between researchers at the University of Lapland and professionals at the Federation of Mother and Child Homes and Shelters who specialize in helping victims of violence. Representing the University on the research team are doctoral students Anna Nikupeteri and Harriet Tervonen and participating professionals from the Federation include Jaana Kinnunen, Merja Korhonen, Jaana Sohkanen, Pia Marttala, Sirkku Mehtola, Pirjo Ervasti, Riitta Hannus, Tuija Korhonen and Riitta Pohjoisvirta. The academic director of the research is Professor Merja Laitinen of the University of Lapland.


Some facts:

• Stalking became a criminal offence at the beginning of 2014.

• Post-separation stalking is a serious threat to the welfare of its victims and poses a challenge to professionals in many fields as regards recognizing and dealing with the phenomenon and working out solutions for the victims.

• Prior to the present studies, no research had been done in Finland or internationally on children’s experiences of post-separation stalking.

• The University of Lapland and professionals at the Federation of Mother and Child Homes and Shelters have a history of collaborative research going back to 2008.

• The platforms for this cooperation have been the Miina and Varjo [Shadow] projects, carried out at the Oulu mother and child home and shelter and at the Viola – free of violence – association in Mikkeli.

• Data collection for the research has been funded in part by the Alli Paasikivi Foundation through a grant for the project Näkymättömät lapset – Lasten ja nuorten selviytymisen tukeminen vainon varjostamassa arjessa (2012–2014) [Invisible Children – Supporting the Survival of Children and Adolescents in their Everyday Lives Shadowed by Stalking] (2012–2014)].


Results of the research to date have appeared in the following publications:

Nikupeteri, Anna & Laitinen, Merja (2015) Children’s Everyday Lives Shadowed by Stalking: Postseparation Stalking Narratives of Finnish Children and Women Violence and Victims, Volume 30, Number 5, 2015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1891/0886-6708.VV-D-14-00048

Nikupeteri, Anna & Tervonen Harriet &Laitinen Merja (2015) Eroded, Lost or Reconstructed? Security in Finnish Children’s Experiences of Post-Separation Stalking. Child Abuse Review Vol. 24: 285–296 (2015) The Special Edition on Children’s Safeguarding and Domestic Abuse. Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/car.2411

Nikupeteri, Anna & Laitinen, Merja (2015) Finnish women’s and children’s experiences of post-separation stalking: Forms of stalking, impacts and implications for practice. Symposium 10 Utilizing research based knowledge on prevention of stalking. European Conference on Domestic Violence, 6.-9.9.2015, Belfast, UK.

Merja Laitinen & Anna Nikupeteri (2015) Spaces of Narration: How Children and Young People Experience Post-Separation Stalking. The Nordic network on children exposed to violence. 7.-8.5.2015, Stockholm, Sweden.

Nikupeteri, Anna & Laitinen, Merja (2014) Producing Knowledge about Post-Separation Stalking from Children's Point of View – Children As Social Actors? XVIII ISA World Congress of Sociology Session: Children and Violence in Close Relationships. July 13-19.7.2014. Yokohama, Japan.


Additional information:

Anna Nikupeteri
University Teacher
University of Lapland
Tel. +358 40 484 4179
E-mail: firstname.lastname@ulapland.fi

Merja Laitinen
Professor, Social Work
University of Lapland
Tel. +358 40 509 2153
E-mail: firstname.lastname@ulapland.fi