Almost 2.7 million Australians have been stalked since their 15th birthday, the equivalent of about one in seven people. or signup to continue reading In a first, the Australian Bureau of Statistics personal safety survey released on Wednesday reveals one in five women and one in 15 men have reported being stalked.
Women are eight times more likely to be stalked by a male than a female, while male victims are stalked at a similar rate by both men and women, according to the bureau's head of crime and justice statistics William Milne. "Women who were more likely to experience stalking included young women, those who were studying or renting and those under financial stress," he said. Stalking is defined as behaviour purposely causing fear or distress on more than one occasion including following or watching someone in person, loitering around their home or work, keeping tabs on them through an electronic device, maintaining unwanted contact, hacking or impersonating them online.
One in 10 women who took part in the 2021-22 survey said they were stalked in the past decade, three quarters of them by a male they knew. Some 45 per cent nominated a former or current intimate partner and half that group were stalked for more than 12 months. "Half of the women who were stalked by a male intimate partner were assaulted or threatened with assault by that same partner," Mr Milne said.
Swinburne University criminal justice and criminology senior lecturer Rachael Burgin described the resu.
