Stalking Statistics
- 1.2 Million women are stalked each year in England and Wales.
- The university of Leicester estimates that one in five woman and one in twenty men will be affected by stalkers at least once in their lifetime.
- More than a third of stalkers will be ex- partners
- More than half of stalkers will be some one the victim knows.
- There are more than 40 000 arrests each year related to stalking
- Approximately 4000 prosecutions each year
- Stalking is not classified as a specific offence
Domestic violence and sexual assault are serious public health and criminal justice problems.
Reducing the most serious violence (including tackling serious sexual offences and domestic
violence) has recently been stated as Priority Action 1 within Public Service Agreement 23
published by the Home Office (October 2007) and there is a greater focus on more serious
crime within the Home Office’s 2008/2011 crime strategy (July 2007).
The British Crime Survey (BCS) is a large, nationally representative victimisation survey of approximately 47,000 adults living in private households in England and Wales.
These figures from the BCS are not affected by levels of reporting to the police, which is particularly important for these crime types.
Definitions of Intimate Violence
Partner abuse (non-sexual): non-sexual emotional or financial abuse, threats or physical
force by a current or former partner.
Family abuse (non-sexual): non-sexual emotional or financial abuse, threats or physical force by a family member other than a partner (father/mother, step-father/mother or other relative).
Sexual assault: indecent exposure, sexual threats and unwanted touching (‘less serious’), rape or assault by penetration including attempts (‘serious’), by any person including a partner or family member.
Stalking: Two or more incidents – causing distress, fear or alarm – of obscene/threatening unwanted letters or phone calls, waiting or loitering around home or workplace, following or watching, or interfering with or damaging personal property by any person including a partner or family member.
In the last year stalking was the most commonly experienced type of intimate violence, with eight per cent of women and seven per cent of men reporting having experienced it just over one-fifth (22%) had experienced stalking by their current or former partner(s) since the age of 16
A very useful PDF containing stalker statistics can be found on the Home Office website:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs08/hosb0308.pdf
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