Issues With Stalking

http://www.popcenter.org/problems/stalking/
(The link above is just for general information on stalking laws.)
Although the United States now has better anti-stalking laws than it did in the not so distant past, said laws are far from perfect.  I regularly watch a law called Stalked, hosted by Dr. Michelle Ward, and I have noticed several patterns that are highly problematic for victims of stalking.  For example, it is often more difficult to obtain protection against spouses (former or current), especially when the couple shares things such as custody, bank accounts and property rights.  Such activities fundamentally run on communication, making harassment frighteningly easy.  It is difficult for a woman to obtain a protective order against another woman, especially when the stalking is based on something like envy or fueled by a specific wrongdoing, as opposed to the typical male sex-fueled harassment.  Because the behavior is not sexual in nature, law enforcement often writes it off as a "cat fight," especially when the local police are predominantly male.  African American women also face greater danger at the hands of stalkers because their male stalkers are initially given less serious sentences than their Caucasian counterparts (unfortunately, one of the only legal aspects that this happens in).  While watching the show last night, one African American woman's ex-husband was released from jail on parole only two days after charging at her with a knife and throwing their infant son across the room.  The danger in violent stalking for African American women is also increased due to the likelihood of children being involved.  From what I have observed, white female victims tend to have 0-2 kids across a wide variety of ages when they are stalked, while African American women tend to have 1-4 children who are usually younger; it is rare for these kids to be past their mid teens from what I have seen.  Not only does this put children, who are usually afforded more protection under the law, at an increased risk, it increases the risk on the mother who has to protect these children.  She cannot fight solely for herself, or rather, she usually will not.  One of these cases even involved the death of a teenage girl because the police did not take the threat seriously enough.
Stalking laws are actually disadvantageous towards men as well.  Since male law enforcement does not usually take female stalkers seriously (as mentioned in an above example), they tend to scoff at men claiming that they are victims.  The underlying attitude seems to me "can't you control your woman" or "man up, you're the stronger one" or "can't you take care of your own problems?"  Such attitudes have horrific consequences, because although female stalkers are significantly rarer than male stalkers, they often succeed in killing their victims due to a lack of intervention of law enforcement.  Gender roles affect both men and women negatively in these cases.