Extent and Nature of Stalking
| Published date | 01 December 2000 |
| Date | 01 December 2000 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/026455050004700415 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
284
policy
objectives
also
discouraged
careful
assessment
of
individual
circumstances.
These
included
organisational
drives
towards
general
deterrence,
and
detention
for
administrative
convenience.
There
was
evidence
that
immigration
officials
used
detention
as
a
means
of
encouraging
asylum
seekers
to
withdraw
their
applications,
thus
allowing
speedier
removal.
The
authors
speculate
that
this
may
be
the
result
of
feelings
of
being
administratively
overwhelmed
and
reflect
&dquo;a
desire
to
re-instate
the
refuse-detain-
remove
cycle.&dquo;
There
was
also
considerable
variation
in
the
use
of
detention
suggesting
that
there
is
no
clear
definition
of
what
constitutes
the
’last
resort’
which
detention
is
supposed
to
be.
Some
categories
of
asylum
seeker
appear
to
be
more
likely
to
be
granted
temporary
admission
because,
for
example,
they
are
of
a
nationality
which
qualifies
them
for
the
self-completion
asylum
questionnaires.
On
the
other
hand,
there
appears
to
have
been
systematic
detention
of
heads
of
Roma
households.
Women
were
generally
less
liable
to
detention
because
of
a
lack
of
current
female
detention
space,
child
care
responsibilities
and
immigration
officers’
perception
of
them
as
being
vulnerable.
The
report
makes
several
recommendations
for
change,
including:
.
Decision-making
time
could
be
reduced
and/or
detention
(where
necessary)
shifted
to
time
of
removal.
.
Non-custodial
options
used
abroad
and
by
other
sections
of
the
Immigration
Service
could
be
considered
for
asylum
seekers
from
time
or
arrival.
.
Immigration
detention
should
not
be
used
as
a
stop
gap
measure
where
other
services
are
lacking.
.
Perhaps
most
fundamentally,
a
meaningful
external
review
should
be
conducted
into
the
lawfulness
of
detention.
Deciding
to
Detain:
How
Discretion
to
Detain
Asylum
Seekers
is
Exercised
at
Ports
of Entry
,
by
Leanne
Weber
and
Loraine
Gelsthorpe,
Institute
of
Criminology,
University
of
Cambridge,
2000,
£10.
Extent
and
Nature
of
Stalking
The
1998
British
Crime
Survey
included
a
self-completion
questionnaire
specifically
designed
to
measure
experiences
of
‘stalking’ .
Using
the
relatively
broad
definition
of
’persistent
and
unwanted
attention’,
11.8%
of
respondents
reported
having
experienced
such
behaviour
at
some
time
in
their
lives.
Looking
just
at
the
previous
year,
2.9%
of
adults
aged
16-59
reported
having
been
the
victims
of
stalking,
equating
to
about
900,000
victims.
When
the
definition
of
stalking
is
restricted
to
those
episodes
which
involve
violence,
the
fear
of
violence
or
threat
of
it,
this
figure
drops
to
550,000.
Twice
as
many
women
were
victims
than
men,
and
young
women
between
16-24
were
particularly
at
risk.
Other
high
risk
factors
for
women
were
being
single,
being
students,
living
in
private
rented
accommodation,
living
in
a
flat
and
living
in
a
low
income
household.
Men
were
overwhelmingly
likely
to
be
the
perpetrators
and
were
involved
in
90%
of
incidents
against
women
and
57%
of
those
against
men.
Whereas
women
were
most
likely
to
believe
that
perpetrators
wanted
to
start
a
relationship
with
them,
men
tended
to
think
that
a
desire
to
annoy
or
irritate
them
motivated
the
stalking.
Contrary
to
popular
opinion,
strangers
were
responsible
for
only
about
a
third
of
all
stalking
incidents;
in
just
under
a
third
of
cases
the
perpetrator
had
an
intimate
relationship
with
the
victim.
Stalking
led
to
a
change
in
the
behaviour
of
more
than
two
thirds
of
victims,
many
of
whom
avoided
certain
places,
went
out
less
or
took
additional
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