Stalking: A study on lawyers registered with the Istanbul Bar Association

Abstract

This study is one of the rare studies conducted on the stalking experiences of lawyers. When we examine the literature on stalking, it is observed that the majority of victims are women, and stalking is predominantly carried out by ex-spouses/partners or current spouses/partners. However, studies conducted on certain professionals have identified that some individuals are subjected to stalking due to their professional roles. In this context, the purpose of this study is to profile the stalking experiences of lawyers registered with the Istanbul Bar Association in Türkiye, discuss the risk factors, and shed light on future research. For data collection, a 23-question survey was created using Google Forms. The survey was distributed to 75 lawyers registered with the Istanbul Bar Association. It was found that 57.7% of the participating lawyers had been subjected to stalking, while 42.3% had not. The stalkers were identified as individuals the lawyers had met at some point in their lives (27.3%), ex-spouses/ex-lovers/ex-partners (18.2%), their own clients (15.2%), and opposing clients (9.1%). Stalking was mostly carried out through repeated phone calls/messages (69.7%) and via digital means on social media/the internet (66.7%). It was noted that 90.9% of the lawyers who had been subjected to stalking did not report it to legal authorities or file a complaint. In conclusion, although there are limitations in generalizing our findings beyond the current sample, it is evident that lawyers can also be victims of stalking, and there is a high incidence of such stalking being perpetrated by either opposing clients or their own clients. Furthermore, the most striking finding of the research is that the vast majority of victimized lawyers choose not to report the crime to official authorities due to their lack of confidence in the legal process related to stalking.