Stalking is one of the most frequently experienced forms of abuse and can terrify and destroy the lives of victims. It’s often misinterpreted and misunderstood to be romantic and complimentary to its victims, but it happens as a result of someone’s unwanted fixation and obsession with a person.

The most common type of stalker is an ex-partner or someone you already know. People working in public-facing roles, such as nurses, doctors, social workers and those working in retail can face an increased risk of being stalked.
 

Events near you:
We have events being held this weekend from 10am to 3pm in Stroud (12th), Gloucester (13th) and Cheltenham (14th) where you can speak to a specialist officer for advice. We have another event in Cirencester on Easter Sunday too (21st). Click here for details.
 

How can I tell stalking and harassment apart?
Both stalking and harassment involve similar behaviours so they can be difficult to tell apart. Following someone is a well-known example but there are lots more. Standing outside your home or workplace, sending you unsolicited gifts, repeatedly texting and messaging you and hacking into your electronic devices and accounts are a few other examples. A lack of violence or threats of violence does not mean this isn’t a crime or that it shouldn’t be taken seriously.

Stalking will often focus on a person whereas harassment, which can turn into stalking, will often focus on a dispute of some kind.

The key difference with stalking is that it’s about fixation and obsession towards a person. The perpetrators won’t let go and behaviours are likely to be viewed as strange or odd by many people. If someone walked for 2 hours just to stand outside someone’s home that would seem odd, whereas if someone walked for 10 minutes to do the same that wouldn’t seem as odd.
 

Advice for putting a stop to it:
Our advice for stopping stalking can be remembered with the mnemonic STOP:
 

Say no once and stop responding, but don’t completely block them.
Take notes by keeping a log of evidence.
Options – Contact the free National Stalking Helpline on 0808 802 0300.
Police – Report it as early as possible.

Always tell at least one other person if you’re being stalked. Please don’t suffer in silence by keeping it to yourself.

Don’t completely block them from contacting you:
If you believe you’re being stalked it’s important to know that we don’t advise you completely block someone from contacting you on social media, messaging apps, by phone or text. The reason for this is that the stalker is fixated and obsessed with you and will likely find some other way to contact you. They may instead try to contact you in person.

Instead, if you can, set their messages to ‘mute’ or ‘ignore’ and turn off any read receipts that are sent. This way you can create a log of evidence every time they contact you, take screenshots and watch for any worrying escalations in behaviour.

Recording evidence in a log:
You don’t have to have a log of evidence to report stalking or harassment but it’s really beneficial for us if you do. Once you’ve told the person to stop once keep a log of every contact they make with you in any way. Take screenshots of messages, store gifts safely, record the times, dates, locations, witnesses and any police incident numbers. You can download an evidence diary from our website by clicking here.
 

Cyberstalking, location tracking and personal safety advice:
Nowadays there is often a digital element to stalking and harassment. If you feel you are being stalked and the person you think is stalking you might have had access to your electronic devices and online accounts consider working through the cleaning and security advice on our website.

We also have advice about personal safety which may be of interest to victims as well as a link to the Hollie Guard personal safety mobile app from the Hollie Gazzard Trust. View that advice here.
 

Need to report stalking or harassment?
You can do this through our website, by calling 101 or at a police station.

If you’re unsure about something please come and see us at one of our events or contact us through this website form.

#saferdaysandnights
 

source https://www.yourcommunityalerts.co.uk/da/266187