Evaluation of stalking cases by police: a European multy-centre study

Little research data are available regarding perception and attitudinal factors affecting recognition ofstalking cases, appropriateness of interventions and/or referrals and risk assessments in stalking cases bypolice.This presentation reports findings of a multi-centre European study, funded by the European Commission’sDaphne Program to prevent and combat violence against children, young people and women.Sociodemographic, cultural and attitudinal factors (emerging from attitudinal questions regarding courtshipbehaviours and stalking as a phenomenon) that could influence the evaluation of stalking cases wereexplored in police officers using a survey presenting 16 case vignettes. There were 12 typical a prioriderivedstalking scenarios depicting varying degrees of severity of harassing behaviours having strangers,acquaintances and ex-partners as perpetrators and 4 controls vignettes, considered not to be stalking casesby the researchers. For each vignette, Likert type and multiple-choice questions explored perceptions andevaluation of risk of complicating violence, abnormality and illegality of the behaviours, intervention468options and support- and treatment- needs for both victim and stalker. 328 front-desk policemen fromBelgium, Italy, the Netherlands and United Kingdom responded. Results showed that, in general, policeofficers were able to discriminate stalking from non-stalking vignettes. Italian police officers rated stalkingvignettes as depicting more normal situations than Dutch and English colleagues, and less illegal than allother countries’ colleagues, reflecting differences in national availability of specific laws prosecuting thiscrime. The severity of the stalking behaviours depicted in the vignettes did influence police officers’recognition of the behaviour as stalking and also their ratings on the risk of physical violence. Italian policeofficers rated risk higher when stalkers stalked strangers instead of an ex-partner or an acquaintance, whenresearch shows that this is not the case. The findings point at clear information and training needs on thetopic of stalking in the population explored.