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WQ.439/2021
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HOME AFFAIRS BY DEPUTY M.R. HIGGINS OF ST. HELIER
QUESTION SUBMITTED ON MONDAY 25TH OCTOBER 2021 ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON MONDAY 1ST NOVEMBER 2021
Question
Will the Minister state the number of complaints made to the States of Jersey Police about stalking for each of the last five years; and advise how such complaints have been dealt with, in particular giving details of the number of harassment notices issued, restraining orders obtained and any repeat offending identified; and will he also state the number of successful convictions against stalkers during this period?
Answer
It should be noted that there is no offence of stalking in Jersey. The closest offence which captures stalking behaviour is under Article 3 of the Crime (Disorderly Conduct & Harassment) Law 2008. However, this legislation does not recognise the unique features of stalking.
The UK has specific legislation in relation to stalking as they recognised many victims of stalking felt that they were not taken seriously by the criminal justice system and that stalking should be a specific offence. Stalking is not legally defined in the UK legislation but examples of behaviours associated with stalking. are:
- following a person,
- contacting, or attempting to contact, a person by any means,
- publishing any statement or other material relating or purporting to relate to a person, or purporting to originate from a person,
- monitoring the use by a person of the internet, email or any other form of electronic communication,
- loitering in any place (whether public or private),
- interfering with any property in the possession of a person,
- watching or spying on a person.
The following data is therefore based on text mentioning “stalking” in incident logs reported to the police as opposed to harassment. Any crimes identified will have been recorded as harassment. There will of course be many more harassment incidents recorded from 2016 – 21, however, they have not been described as stalking on initial report. Harassment Notices are no longer used in accordance with best practice recommendations from the College of Policing therefore this data is not available. There is one repeat offender within this data.
2016 12 incidents 2017 21 incidents 2018 21 incidents 2019 41 incidents 2020 32 incidents 2021 65 incidents
2 crimes
2 crimes
5 crimes
4 crimes
2 crimes 2 convictions – 2 x probation orders 15 crimes
We believe the increase in 2021 may be related to the Sarah Everard case and the subsequent spotlight on violence against women and girls (VAWG).