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. %%%%
