By Bill Zeeble, KERA News
Dallas, TX – Crime rates have dropped nationwide, but crimes against women have grown. That's according to Executive Director of the Genesis Women's Shelter, Jan Langbein. She says the internet, cell phones, and global positioning systems are the latest tools stalkers use to control and abuse women.
Langbein: When I first started, safety planning was hide an extra set of car keys, have a signal with your neighbor across the street, have a code word with a safe relative on a phone.' But now we have to disconnect GPS systems, we also have to shut down telephones that he tracks her through that 'friends and family' kind of opportunities within cell phones.
Langbein helped create the annual Conference on Crimes Against Women, now in its 6th year in Dallas. The 3-day gathering for professionals in the field began Monday, and has drawn about 1,000 people nationwide.