1 in 5 adult women have experienced stalking

New analysis released today by the ABS highlights important differences in the way in which Australian men and women experience and respond to stalking.

The 2012 Personal Safety Survey found that approximately one in five adult women and one in thirteen adult men had experienced stalking during their lifetime.

Additional analysis of this dataset has revealed further differences in the characteristics of men’s and women’s most recent episode of stalking.

Whilst both men and women were more likely to be stalked by someone they knew, women were more likely than men to experience anxiety or fear as a result of being stalked.

“The results also show that women were significantly more likely to experience stalking by a male than by a female perpetrator, whereas men were equally likely to experience stalking by either sex,” said William Milne, Director of the ABS’ National Centre for Crime and Justice Statistics.

“Men were less likely to perceive stalking as a crime, less likely to experience anxiety or fear, and less likely to contact the police if the stalker was a female compared to a male. In contrast, for women, the sex of the stalker had no impact on their likelihood of perceiving stalking as a crime, experiencing anxiety or fear, and contacting the police.”

Further information can be found in In Focus: Crime and Justice Statistics series (cat. no. 4524.0), available for free download from the ABS website: http://www.abs.gov.au/.

Field work for the 2016 Personal Safety Survey has been finalised and results are expected to be released later this year.