About Stalking

Over 1.2 million women and 900,000 men are stalked every year according to The British Crime Survey 2004
8% of women and 6% of men are stalked every year.*
19% of women and 12% of men have experienced stalking or harassment at some point in their lives.*

It can affect anyone

37% of cases of ‘aggravated stalking’ (stalking with violence) against women were carried out by ‘an intimate’. 59% of cases were carried out by people known to them and 7% were carried out by a stranger.
A 2005 study by University of Leicestershire (in conjunction with NSS) 86% of stalking victims were female. The survey found that men are less likely to define themselves as stalking victims.**
36% of the victims in the University of Leicestershire study were professionals.

The University of Leicestershire stalking survey found that 72% of victims said they’d received unsolicited phone-calls. 67% of victims said they’d been spied on. 62% said their stalkers had threatened suicide. 19% said their homes had been broken into. 18% said they’d been sexually assaulted. 15% said their pets had been abused and 12% said their children had been threatened with violence.
Stalkers can ‘research’ their victims – sometimes the information comes from unwitting friends and family. The University of Leicestershire Stalking Survey found that 40% of stalkers obtained information from people’s friends. 27% got information from their work-place and from the victim’s family. 17% of the information came from public records.
Sometimes it’s not just the initial victim who is stalked. According to The University of Leicester research, a quarter of victims said their children had been targeted too. A third said their family and friends had also been stalked. A fifth said work colleagues had been harassed.

According to the findings of the 2005 University of Leicester Study, a third of victims said they’d lost their job or relationship or had been forced to move because of the stalking. 98% of victims reported emotional effects due to stalking. These included anxiety, sleep disturbance, anger, depression, paranoia, agoraphobia and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Half of the victims participating in the University of Leicester study said they’d lost out financially due to stalking. A third said they’d paid for repairs to damage inflicted by a stalker and a fifth paid for legal advice.

Half of the victims responding to the University of Leicester survey reported being told they were being paranoid or over-reacting when they confided to friends and colleagues about their stalker. 57% of victims said they didn’t go to the police when their stalking problem started for fear of being ignored or laughed at.
A sixth of victims in the Leicester study said they were told they were lucky to receive such attention.
A third of these victims said that prior to being stalked, they’d thought that only mentally ill people were responsible for stalking.