You asked

  1. How many recorded offences of cyber-stalking have been reported by both men and women in the years between 2005 and 2019? Please include a breakdown of the genders of both victim and suspect.

  2. What were the outcomes of the above recorded offences? How many of these resulted in arrest?

  3. In how many of these cases does the victim know the person they are accusing of stalking?

  4. How many of these reports have escalated to a different, more serious report e.g. physical harassment?

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

In answering your query we shall draw on the following sources, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and police recorded crime. The CSEW is a face-to-face victimisation survey in which people resident in households in England and Wales are asked about their experiences of a range of crimes in the 12 months prior to the interview, whereas police recorded crime refers to data recorded by the police of offences that have come to their attention.

Our latest 'Stalking: findings from the Crime Survey for England and Wales' published dataset  provides an estimate of the number of victims who experienced stalking once or more in the last year: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/stalkingfindingsfromthecrimesurveyforenglandandwales

Table 6 presents stalking for the year ending March 2005 to March 2018 by gender and whether the offender was a partner/ex-partner or family member. These stalking figures will include online stalking but we do not provide a further breakdown of this offence.

The latest figures for stalking offences recorded by the police are published in the Crime in England and Wales; year ending June 2019 (Appendix table A4) publication: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/crimeinenglandandwalesappendixtables

However, given the different factors affecting the reporting and recording of these offences, the police figures do not provide a reliable measure of current trends. There is limited data on police recorded crimes that have been flagged as being committed online. In the year ending December 2018 (Table E4), 15% of harassment and stalking offences were flagged as having an online element.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/crimeinenglandandwalesexperimentaltables

Our Domestic abuse in England and Wales: year ending March 2018 publication also contains data on outcomes of police recorded domestic abuse related offences:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/domesticabuseinenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2018#prevalence-of-domestic-abuse

Figures for a range of outcomes from different sources can be found in the appendix tables of this publication. Information on sex of the offender is also available in these tables. However, we do not publish outcomes for stalking as a separate offence.

Although we do not have data that specifically answers your question on whether stalking escalates to more serious offences, the Domestic abuse in England and Wales: year ending March 2018 publication also presents data from CSEW on how many types of abuse are experienced by victims, including stalking. These data are available in Table 3:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/domesticabuseinenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2018/relateddata

We regret that we are unable to assist you further. If you would like any further information, you can email us at CrimeStatistics@ons.gov.uk and we will endeavour to help.