Evening talk review: Stalking, 17 Sept 2025

Presented by Stop Domestic Abuse Service

The evening was presented by the charity STOP Domestic Abuse, by Nancy and Becky, who both have extensive knowledge and experience in the field.

Definition and Statistics

They began with offering a definition of stalking, with the statement that a legally defined term does not currently exist in the UK. They described stalking using the acronym FOUR, as behaviour that is Fixed, Obsessive, Unwanted and Repeated and presented the reported statistics of occurrence, whilst acknowledging that these figures do not include unreported incidences. These statistics were alarming, including facts such as:

• What percentage of Domestic Homicide reports have stalking behaviors evident? 94% (university of Gloucestershire)
• What percentage of stalkers will act on the threats made? 50%
• What percentage of these charged cases result in conviction? 2% -in 2019 –2020 there were 1.5 million victims of stalking – 3506 were charged – only 304 received custodial sentences (National stalking Consortium)

Nancy and Becky went on to describe what constituted stalking behaviours and the effects on the victim, including psychological, financial, isolation from friends/family and increased risk of suicide/homicide. They discussed barriers to identifying stalking and to victims getting support, the different typology of offenders and explaining the work that the charity STOP Domestic Abuse does in Hampshire.

Digital/Cyber-Stalking

As a well-known technophobe myself, I was very shocked to hear about digital and cyber stalking and the capability of spyware software, which can be downloaded without consent or knowledge, onto a victim’s mobile phone. The videos which accompanied the evening (unfortunately not available in the room, but distributed by Zana after the event, thank you) were very informative in this area and thought-provoking. They highlighted the impact on young people particularly, with their reliance on social media and digital connectivity.

This was a very interesting evening and certainly gave me plenty to reflect on and relate to, with my client work.

HACP has donated to the Stop Domestic Abuse charity, in lieu of our usual speaker fee and more information about the charity can be found at https://stopdomesticabuse.uk/

Reviewed by Dr Julie May