Dissertation Research: The Social Construction of Anti-Stalking Legislation in the American States

9632974 Ruggie在20世纪90年代，美国各州通过立法，将反复跟踪或骚扰某人以造成情绪困扰的行为定为非法。这些“跟踪法”旨在防止相对无害的情况升级为暴力对抗。但许多法律都有问题，其中一些被法院推翻。本论文解决了三个问题。是什么因素决定了一个州是否通过了过于宽泛、过于狭窄或使用模糊语言的跟踪法规？哪些因素决定了一个州是否修改了它的法律？在哪些方面可以防止跟踪立法的问题？基于理论的假设（扩散，结构等效和利益集团压力理论）将与从州政府，人口普查，报纸来源，以及美国各地的利益集团收集的数据进行测试。分析将试图确定是什么因素导致每个州修改其法律。标准回归技术和定性比较分析（QCA）将用于分析前两个问题的数据。 回答最后一个问题将涉及对1990年10月由加州州通过的第一部反跟踪法的立法历史的审查。 %%%%

9632974 Ruggie In the 1990s, American states adopted legislation to make it illegal to repeatedly follow or harass someone with the intent of bringing about emotional distress. These "stalking laws" were intended to prevent relatively harmless situations from escalating into violent confrontations. But many of the laws were problematic and a number of them were overturned by the courts. This dissertation addresses three questions. What factors determined whether or not a state adopted a stalking statute that was overly broad, overly narrow, or used language that was vague? What factors determined whether or not a state amended its law? In what ways could problems with the stalking legislation could have been prevented? Theoretically based hypotheses (diffusion, structural equivalence and interest group pressure theories) will be tested with data collected from state governments, the census, newspaper sources, and interest groups across the US. Analyses will attempt to determine what factors led each state to amend its law. Standard Regression techniques and Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) will be used to analyze the data for the first two questions. Answering the final question will involve an examination of the legislative history of the first anti-stalking law, passed in October 1990 by the state of California. %%%%