ORIGINAL ARTICLE Intersections of Stalking and Technology-Based Abuse: Emerging Definitions, Conceptualization, and Measurement Jill Messing 1 & Meredith Bagwell-Gray 2 & Megan Lindsay Brown 1 & Andrea Kappas 1 & Alesha Durfee 3 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020 Abstract Intimate partner violence, stalking, and technology-based abuse increasingly intersect as online surveillance has become more easily accessible. Despite the ubiquity of information communication technologies across all aspects of social life, definitions and measurement of stalking have not kept pace with this cultural shift. This article describes stalking and technology-based abuse across three samples of intimate partner violence survivors. Over a period of 6 years (2012–2018), data were collected from survivors of intimate partner violence (n = 1137) receiving services from domestic violence programs (including shelter). Three forms of data collection were employed across two studies: pen-and-paper surveys, web-based surveys, and qualitative semi- structured interviews. Data were combined and analyzed to document and compare women’ s reports of stalking and technology- based abuse. Across the two quantitative samples, 62–72% of women reported experiencing direct stalking and 60–63% reported experiencing technology-based abuse by an intimate partner. Qualitative data are used to describe and contextualize women’ s reports of stalking and technology-based abuse. Stalking and technology-based abuse are contingent upon the context, including frequency, duration, history of abuse, and patterns of behavior. Due to the subjective nature of online interactions, it is challenging to create definitions and measures that capture these forms of abuse. Indeed, survivors themselves may not have a clear understanding of the threshold at which monitoring behaviors become abusive. Researchers should work to better understand definitions, measurement, and consequences of technology-based abuse and stalking while advocates and legislators move toward creating legal protections for survivors. Keywords Intimate partner violence . Technology . Abuse . Stalking In October 2018, Lauren McCluskey was murdered by her ex- boyfriend before he killed himself (Carlisle and Harkins 2018). Prior to the homicide, Ms. McCluskey reported to the campus police that her ex-boyfriend had been harassing her; she had broken up with him because he had lied about his name, age, and status as a sex offender. She also reported that he was “really upset” about the break-up. The police contacted his parole officer who determined that the infractions reported did not warrant placing him into custody. After the murder, the University Chief of Police stressed that Ms. McCluskey did not report fear and that the campus police had based their decisions on the victim’ s demeanor and perception of the sit- uation stating that his officers told Ms. McCluskey “if she felt physically threatened or if she felt like she was in personal harm, that she needed to tell us so we could help her. Unfortunately, that just didn’t happen for us.” (Carlisle and Harkins 2018, p. 5). However, had police focused on the per- petrator’ s behaviors, his actions may have been recognized as stalking and an attempt to re-establish control after a separa- tion. These behaviors included: scaring her by looking into her apartment window, falsified messages claiming that the per- petrator was dead and that his death was her fault, and threats to leak intimate photos if she did not pay him $1000. When reporting these incidents to the police, Ms. McCluskey was most concerned about the extortion threat and her photos appearing online. In this case, the severity of the harassment and the danger that these acts portended was not properly identified by law enforcement (Carlisle and Harkins 2018). * Jill Messing Jill.Messing@asu.edu 1 School of Social Work, Arizona State University, 411 N. Central Ave., Suite 800, Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA 2 School of Social Welfare, University of Kansas, Phoenix, AZ, USA 3 School of Social Transformation, Women & Gender Studies, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA Journal of Family Violence https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-019-00114-7