A major national study on stalking, released on January 13, 2009, by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), serves as a wake-up call about a serious and often misunderstood crime, says the National Center for Victims of Crime, the nation's leading resource and advocacy organization for crime victims and founder of the Stalking Resource Center.  Stalking Victimization in the United States, the largest collection of data on stalking prevalence and behavior to date, found that 3.4 million persons identified themselves as victims of stalking in a 12-month period.  This figure, which represents an increase of 2 million victims per year over the findings of a key 1998 study, suggests the urgent need for a more comprehensive response to the crime.