Violence against Women and Girls Crime report contents

Table 2b: Harassment and stalking offences charged and reaching a first hearing in
Magistrates’ Courts – Total Volume and Percentage of total flagged as DA.
2010 - 11 2011-12 2012 - 13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16
Vol % DA Vol % DA Vol % DA Vol % DA Vol % DA Vol % DA
Family Law
Act 1996
{42A(1) and
(5)}
PHA 83 1997 {
2(1) and (2)}
PHA 1997
{4(1) and (4)}
PHA 1997
{2A(1) and
(4)}
PHA 1997
{4A(1)(a)(b)
(i) and (5)}
PHA 1997
{4A(1)(a)(b)
(ii) and (5)}
PHA 1997
{5(5) and (6)}
PHA 1997
{5(5) and (6)}
Breach a nonmolestation
order - Family
Law Act 1996
Harassment
without
violence
Harassment -
put in fear of
violence
Stalking with
fear / alarm /
distress
Stalking
involving fear of
violence
Stalking
involving
serious alarm /
distress
Harassment -
breach of a
restraining
order on
conviction
Harassment -
breach of a
restraining
order after
acquittal
5,281 80.7 5,323 81.4 5,563 79.3 6,498 85.9 7,013 89.7 6,672 93.6
8,039 60.0 7,713 61.1 7,159 58.9 8,303 63.3 9,180 68.0 10,07
3
2,199 64.7 1,632 64.7 1,398 55.4 1,489 63.9 1,839 66.6 1,811 65.7
- - - - 72 72.2 529 72.6 676 69.7 643 70.9
- - - - 9 88.9 65 75.4 133 73.7 128 67.2
- - - - 10 70.0 149 55.7 294 66.0 331 61.3
5,768 68.7 8,447 73.0 9,962 71.8
11,32
9
77.3
13,12
6
82.2 14,86
3
154 60.4 286 70.6 313 70.3 322 76.1 433 77.6 521 85.2
70.9
85.8
Although the volume of stalking offences starting a prosecution remained steady in 2015-16 (1,102),
compared with 2014-15 (1,103), there has been an increase in prosecutions started of the more
serious offence of s.4A stalking involving serious alarm and distress – in total 37 more offences
starting prosecution. That increase has been balanced with a drop in prosecutions for the lower s.2A
offence of stalking with fear, alarm or distress – in total 33 fewer offences starting prosecution. There
was a fall of five offences under s.4A stalking involving fear of violence.
Offence data is not available by gender of defendant or victim.
MoJ data is provided in Annex 2 outlining the prosecution outcomes by defendant. Although there
were fewer stalking prosecutions completed in 2015 (780), compared with the previous year (821),
there were more convictions overall and for the more serious stalking offences. There was an
increase of 40 convictions under s.4A stalking involving serious alarm or distress (from 109 to 149); an
increase of seven convictions under s.4A stalking involving fear of violence (from 38 to 45) and a fall
of 13 convictions under s.2A stalking with fear/alarm/distress (from 348 to 335).
83 PHA – Protection from Harassment Act
43