According to The British Crime Survey, up to 120,000 people will be a victim of stalking each year; many of which will be repeat victims up to 100 times before reporting it to the police and only 2 per cent result in convictions.
Since 1997, the Protection from Harassment Act has been in place making it illegal to "pursue a course of conduct which amounts to harassment of another and which the defendant knows, or ought to know, amounts to harassment of another".Police reports show that the vast majority of cases involve the victims knowing their stalker; and most offences will follow a previous intimate relationship between the victim and the offender.
Many believe that the Protection from Harassment Act is not as effective as it needs to be. Plaid Cymru MP Elfyn Llwyd, is leading the parliamentary inquiry calling for stalking to become a specific offence as it has been in Scotland since June 2010; a reform which resulted in 400 offenders being convicted last year.
He told BBC Radio Wales: "The problem is we don't have any form of definition of what stalking amounts to - we know the effects of it but we don't have a definition."
Shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper believes that the implementation of a similar law to that introduced in Scotland would send a clear signal that stalking would not be tolerated; a view shared by Laura Richards, founder of the Homicide Prevention Unit at the New Scotland Yard and campaigner for the charity 'Protection Against Stalking' who said:
"It is time to recognise the physical and psychological harm and terror that stalking causes. This is about murder prevention. Stalking should be a criminal offence in its own right."
Lincolnshire Police actively combat issues involving stalking and harassment through a newly introduced policy which involves specially trained officers, linked to the 'National Stalking and Harassment' helpline responding to reported incidents.
Their aim is to "save lives through early risk identification" a process that would benefit greatly from a reform in legislation which Hamish Brown, former Head of Stalking at New Scotland Yard believes should include new powers allowing officers to enter the premises of a suspected stalker.Mr Brown does believe, however, that the current law is successful and does not require radical modification:
"I am concerned there should not be whole scale change but would agree to a little 'tweaking.' The current law is excellent, the best in the world in my opinion. It is not broke, so there is no need to fix it."
"It is essential that rehabilitation programmes are developed for perpetrators in both a health and criminal justice setting to ensure that stalking behaviour is dealt with as early as possible."
By Benjamin Yates
Sources:
Pic 1: http://bearcatecho.org/?p=1709073
Pic 2: http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/Lincolnshire-Police-loses-20-officers-year/story-15145946-detail/story.html
http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16164454
http://www.lincs.police.uk/Departments/Local-Policing/Safety-Advice/Community-Safety-Advice/Stalking-and-Harassment.html
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/crime-research/hosb0212/
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/science-research/research-statistics/crime/crime-statistics/
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/science-research/research-statistics/crime/crime-statistics/british-crime-survey/
http://www.stalkingriskprofile.com/victim-support/restraining-orders
http://www.stalkinghelpline.org/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16915557
Note: quotes sourced from Sky News/BBC News
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