News/Blog

National Stalking Awareness Week

Since we launched the Scottish Women’s Rights Centre helpline, we’ve had calls from women across Scotland with experience of being stalked be it in the past or present. It is with these women in mind that we warmly welcome National Stalking Awareness Week as an opportunity to highlight the impact of stalking, the influence of technology and as s chance for us all to unite in support of victims of this serious crime.

New technologies have seen a shift in the way that stalking is often experienced; they’ve opened up new means for perpetrators to track, monitor and control their victims. Inbuilt GPS devices in phones, tablets and computers have made it easier for stalkers to locate and follow the movements of their victims, to read their messages, to access their contacts, to follow their social media and to be a constant, unwelcome and threatening presence in the life of the person they stalk.

Technology didn’t invent stalking, far from it. Before phones, iPads, tablets and laptops were so widely accessible stalking took place entirely offline, and a minority of stalking crimes still do. These technologies have both enhanced the ability for perpetrators to stalk offline and they’ve opened up new possibilities of cyber-stalking, where stalking takes place exclusively online. Though it might be possible in some respects to draw distinctions here we should be clear: there is no hierarchy of harm.

The impact of stalking quite simply should not be underestimated. The intense fear and anxiety it provokes is practically inescapable, and can have a significant impact on those who experience it. Yet stalking happens each and every day in our communities, most often to women and most often in the context of domestic abuse, whether as part of a past or present relationship. It is violation of women’s space and their rights.

Katy Mathieson, Coordinator of the Scottish Women’s Rights Centre said:

“We provide free legal information and advice to women survivors of stalking and are committed to working with partner agencies to improve survivors’ access to justice. In law, stalking is prosecuted where it is possible to corroborate 2 or more incidents causing fear and alarm. In our experience women live with multiple incidents such as threats, intimidation, unwanted contact through social media, calls and text messages before reporting and it is frequently difficult to corroborate the level of harassment or severity of impact.

“The Scottish Women’s Rights Centre can offer representation to survivors of stalking through obtaining Non Harassment Orders and can also assist if there are other associated crime types such as domestic abuse.”