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27 J. Forensic Psychiatry & Psych. 1 (2016)

handle is hein.journals/jnlofncpy27 and id is 1 raw text is: The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology, 2016 1 Routledge Vol. 27, No. 1, 1-20, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14789949.2015.1094118 * Taylor&FrancisGroup Stalking, harassment and aggressive/intrusive behaviours towards general practitioners: (2) associated factors, motivation, mental illness and effects on GPs Leah Woostera, David V. Jamesab* and Frank R. Farnhama aNational Stalking Clinic, London, UK; bTheseus LLP London, UK (Received 22 May 2015; accepted 1 September 2015) Seventy per cent of general practitioners (GPs) were found in an earlier study to have been subject to aggressive/intrusive behaviours by patients, with nearly 20% stalked and 20% harassed. Using the same sample, an exploration was undertaken of patterns of behaviour, patient characteristics, including mental illness and motivation, GP characteristics, and effects upon them of aggression/intrusion. There were significant differences in patterns of behaviour between stalking and harassment. Nearly half the patients involved were suspected to be mentally ill, including 54.5% of stalking cases. Stalking was significantly associated with intimacy-seeking motivation, and harassment with resentful motivation. No significant asso- ciations emerged between sex of patients or GPs and aggressive/intrusive behaviours. Measures of GP time-at-risk were associated with higher prevalence of individual behaviours. GPs' responses to aggressive/intrusive behaviours included increasing security and changing routines, with small minorities afraid to go out or be at home alone, and a proportion experi- encing adverse effects on personal relationships. Keywords: stalking; harassment; aggression; general practitioner; post- traumatic Introduction At least six studies of aggressive behaviour towards general practitioners (GPs) have included stalking as a questionnaire item amongst lists of other intrusive and inappropriate behaviours (Forrest, Herath, McRae, & Parker, 2011; Gale, Arroll, & Coverdale, 2006; Magin, Joy, Ireland, Adams, & Sibbritt, 2005; Magin et al., 2011; Miedema, Hamilton, Lambert-Lanning, et al., 2010; Miedema, Hamilton, Tatemichi, et al., 2010; Tolhurst et al., 2003). Yet, in these studies, stalking was not a principal focus and it was left to the survey respondents to identify behaviours as stalking, although there is evidence that GPs 'contextualise' their patients behaviours (Elston, Gabe, Denney, Lee, & O'Beirne, 2002), rather than categorising them objectively. In addition, there © 2015 Taylor & Francis *Corresponding author. Email: david.james5@ntlworld.com