Cyberstalking app hands back control to victims
A force has partnered with the University of Bedfordshire to develop a mobile app for victims of cyberstalkingStalking is a crime as old as the hills but the advent of the internet has given birth to an era of technology - enabled harassment.
HMIC and HM CPSI published a damning report into the police service’s response to stalking and harassment offences in July which said victims were being left at risk by police and CPS failings.
Inspectors found in 112 cases of stalking or harassment which they assessed, none were investigated properly with ‘disturbing indications’ for the treatment of victims. No action was taken to protect the victim of a violent domestic abuse perpetrator who threatened to cut his victim’s throat, the report found.
In one anonymised case study, a woman referred to as ‘Elaine’ only realised she was being stalked after seven websites were created about her. They were full of information about her personal life and pictures of her, including malicious content - which was sent to her children and previous employers.
“When Elaine initially contacted the police, she felt they were not interested and advised Elaine that there was not enough evidence to arrest the person,” the report said.
It took 12 months before Elaine’s stalker was arrested and cautioned but the unsettling content is still being posted.
Elaine has been left afraid to leave the house, forced to change jobs and move her children to different schools.
But when response officers and detective are facing immense workloads, how do you prevent cases like Elaine?
Bedfordshire Police is reconfiguring its response to stalking. In August, it stopped sending Police Information Notices to victims- deemed ineffective by HMIC and victims’ charities.
And the force has partnered with the University of Bedfordshire’s National Centre for Cyberstalking Research to develop a mobile app aimed at helping victims assemble evidence against their stalkers.
Victims will be able to record digital, audio and video evidence in real time. Metadata is also recorded to build a picture of where material is being sent from. The app also offers a statistics review feature that allows victims to calculate hotspots- the times offenders are most active.
The app is only one component of a wider scheme, funded by the Home Office, to aid police investigations.
Researchers are also creating a Digital Risk Assessment in Stalking and Harassment (DRASH) to help first responders assess risk to victims.
The third part of the scheme is a rehabilitation scheme, based on a model created by Hampshire Police, for perpetrators.
Bedfordshire Police’s Detective Chief Inspective Chris Beresford said: “In earlier times we would have told victims to keep a pen-and-paper diary of what happened. But this is a live system that also allows victims to capture metadata and gather evidence about where information is being sent from.
“It’s partly about empowering and handing back control to victims. It just makes sense to use a digital platform to document a digital offence.”
“My experience of working with the University has been very positive. In times of austerity if the private sector has the resources and the knowledge, why not work together. It is something I can see happening more often in the future.”
He added he believes DRASH will make a significant difference to frontline officers.
“Frontline officers are expected to be a jack-of-all-trades in an age when crime is becoming increasingly cyber-enabled. DRASH will help to take some of the pressure off.”
The third part of the scheme is a rehabilitation scheme, based on a model created by Hampshire Police, for perpetrators.
Dr Emma Short, who directs the NCCR, said: “Only first time offenders who are assessed as standard risk will be eligible. The aim is to re-educate- the project we modelled the scheme on showed potential to reduce re-offending by 50 per cent.
“It has definitely been beneficial to work directly with Bedfordshire Police. In academic research you have to be very objective and sometimes you can end up a little bit removed. So the police perspective was valuable and helped us to understand how to respond to their needs.”
She added: “The centre opened in 2011 after I was commissioned to carry out one of the first academic studies into the impacts of cyberstalking. Not much was known about cyberstalking even five years ago, but there has been a real attitude shift with an increased public consciousness and media coverage of cyberstalking and the traumatic impact it has upon victim’s lives.”
The app will be piloted in Bedfordshire next year but will eventually be rolled out nationally.
The crime survey for England and Wales estimates that, for the year ending 31 March 2016, 15 percent of adults aged 16 to 59 have been victims of some stalking and/or harassment behaviours since the age of 16.
But 54 per cent of stalking crimes recorded by police in the 12 months to March 2016 were flagged as domestic abuse related, indicating a link between coercive control offences associated with domestic abuse and stalking and harassment crime.
Disturbingly, a Suzy Lamplugh Trust report published in April which studied 358 homicides of women in the UK found stalking behaviours were present in 94 per cent of cases.
National Stalking Consortium’s research found 36.8 per cent of people had been stalked using online methods, with harrowing effects. Almost ten per cent of all stalking victims had moved house in attempt to lose their stalkers, 18.1 per cent had stopped answering their front door 11.4 per cent no longer used their mobile phones.
News Archive
- December 2023 (3)
- November 2023 (5)
- October 2023 (4)
- September 2023 (5)
- August 2023 (4)
- July 2023 (3)
- June 2023 (5)
- May 2023 (2)
- April 2023 (5)
- March 2023 (3)
- February 2023 (7)
- January 2023 (11)
- December 2022 (6)
- November 2022 (5)
- October 2022 (5)
- September 2022 (6)
- August 2022 (2)
- July 2022 (11)
- June 2022 (8)
- May 2022 (11)
- April 2022 (8)
- March 2022 (3)
- February 2022 (5)
- January 2022 (12)
- December 2021 (1)
- November 2021 (9)
- October 2021 (4)
- September 2021 (10)
- August 2021 (9)
- July 2021 (12)
- June 2021 (4)
- May 2021 (11)
- April 2021 (14)
- March 2021 (14)
- February 2021 (19)
- January 2021 (18)
- December 2020 (6)
- November 2020 (12)
- October 2020 (14)
- September 2020 (15)
- August 2020 (16)
- July 2020 (16)
- June 2020 (18)
- May 2020 (22)
- April 2020 (18)
- March 2020 (23)
- February 2020 (20)
- January 2020 (4)
- December 2019 (5)
- November 2019 (6)
- October 2019 (5)
- September 2019 (6)
- August 2019 (8)
- July 2019 (6)
- June 2019 (8)
- May 2019 (8)
- April 2019 (8)
- March 2019 (10)
- February 2019 (9)
- January 2019 (9)
- December 2018 (9)
- November 2018 (12)
- October 2018 (8)
- September 2018 (7)
- August 2018 (11)
- July 2018 (7)
- June 2018 (9)
- May 2018 (9)
- April 2018 (12)
- March 2018 (10)
- February 2018 (8)
- January 2018 (5)
- December 2017 (6)
- November 2017 (4)
- October 2017 (3)
- September 2017 (10)
- August 2017 (5)
- July 2017 (5)
- June 2017 (6)
- May 2017 (6)
- April 2017 (2)
- March 2017 (3)
- February 2017 (4)
- January 2017 (1)
- December 2016 (3)
- November 2016 (4)
- October 2016 (1)
- September 2016 (4)
- August 2016 (4)
- July 2016 (1)
- June 2016 (5)
- May 2016 (3)
- April 2016 (1)
- March 2016 (3)
- February 2016 (3)
- January 2016 (3)
- December 2015 (3)
- November 2015 (3)
- October 2015 (3)
- September 2015 (2)
- August 2015 (1)
- July 2015 (11)
- June 2015 (1)