UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 00.01 ON WEDNESDAY 5 JULY 2017 Living in fear – the police and CPS response to harassment and stalking A joint inspection by HMIC and HMCPSI July 2017 © HMIC 2017 ISBN: 978-1-78655-414-7 www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmic UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 00.01 ON WEDNESDAY 5 JULY 2017 Contents Foreword ................................................................................................................... 4 Summary ................................................................................................................... 5 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................... 18 Background .......................................................................................................... 18 About this inspection ............................................................................................. 20 2. Findings ........................................................................................................... 22 Reporting and investigation .................................................................................. 30 Risk management ................................................................................................. 42 Police Information Notices .................................................................................... 43 Initial victim care ................................................................................................... 53 3. Criminal justice process ................................................................................. 60 Stalking Protection Orders .................................................................................... 60 The national stalking protocol ............................................................................... 62 Protecting victims during the criminal justice process ........................................... 65 Case file quality .................................................................................................... 66 Restraining orders ................................................................................................ 70 Sentencing ............................................................................................................ 77 Offender management .......................................................................................... 77 Offender programmes ........................................................................................... 78 4. Organisational problems ................................................................................ 80 Leadership ............................................................................................................ 80 Organisational understanding ............................................................................... 80 Awareness, guidance and training ........................................................................ 82 Stalking single points of contact ........................................................................... 84 5. Conclusion....................................................................................................... 86 2 UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 00.01 ON WEDNESDAY 5 JULY 2017 Recommendations ................................................................................................. 89 Definitions and interpretation ............................................................................... 92 Annex A – Methodology ...................................................................................... 104 Annex B – HMIC harassment and stalking expert reference group ................. 109 Annex C – Protection orders flow chart ............................................................. 111 Annex D – About the data .................................................................................... 112 3 UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 00.01 ON WEDNESDAY 5 JULY 2017 Foreword “You carry it all the time. You carry it and it’s with you day in day out. Day in day out. And you breathe it, and … it’s in the back of your mind all the time, ‘What is he going to do? What are we going to find … Who’s going to come knocking at our door?’” Stalking victim This is the first time that Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate have inspected and reported on the police service’s and Crown Prosecution Service’s approach to tackling crimes of harassment and stalking. Harassment and stalking crimes are damaging and pervade all sections of society. They can devastate lives and in some cases they end in death. In a digital world, they are crimes that can take place all too easily and frequently. They may be high-profile crimes and often gain the attention of the media when they affect public figures. However, the criminal justice system has a responsibility to all victims whatever the apparent level of seriousness of the actions complained about. Much has been done by government in recent years to try to improve how the criminal justice system tackles stalking in particular. Our inspection shows that actions taken have had mixed success. We now need to consider what more can be done to prevent crimes of harassment and stalking, to protect victims and to bring perpetrators to justice. We would like to record our very great appreciation for the contribution made to our work by the many victims and their representatives throughout this inspection. We are grateful for the work of our expert reference group and also undertaken on our behalf by the University of Worcester, assisted by the Suzy Lamplugh Trust.1 We would like the voice of the victim to be heard through the content of this report. This report must be a catalyst for change and improvement: in some cases victims’ lives will depend on it. 1 For more information about the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, see: www.suzylamplugh.org/ 4 UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 00.01 ON WEDNESDAY 5 JULY 2017 Summary “And you realise … people who are under this kind of stress on a … on a daily basis sometimes, I can understand how suicides occur. Because people feel that they don’t know where to turn.” Stalking victim In 2016/17, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate conducted a joint inspection of how the police and the Crown Prosecution Service tackle crimes of harassment and stalking. This report sets out our findings, and makes a series of recommendations aimed at improving police and CPS practice and therefore the service provided to victims. Background Harassment and stalking Harassment and stalking are crimes of persistence. It is the unrelenting repeat behaviour by the perpetrator experienced in its totality, which seems inescapable and inevitable, that has such a detrimental effect on the victim. The actions in themselves may seem unremarkable, and this may partly explain why some victims suffer repeat behaviour over a prolonged period before reporting it to police,2 or do not report it at all. Harassment and stalking can often also be crimes of control. This is particularly the case when the victimisation is associated with a current or previous controlling and coercive relationship. A report by Dr Lorraine Sheridan and the Network for Surviving Stalking, in which 829 victims of stalking were surveyed, found that the victims were aged between 10 and 73. Men and women from all backgrounds were affected and many were professionals (38 percent). Dr Sheridan concluded that almost anyone can become a victim of stalking.3 2 Paper on Key findings from the www.stalkingsurvey.com, L. Sheridan, 2005. Data quoted in Introduction to stalking, risk & advocacy, Home Office, undated. Available from www.data.gov.uk The findings state that 70 percent of victims do not report to the police until the hundredth incident. 3 Paper on Key findings from the www.stalkingsurvey.com, L. Sheridan, 2005. Data quoted in Introduction to stalking, risk & advocacy, Home Office, undated. Available from www.data.gov.uk 5 UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 00.01 ON WEDNESDAY 5 JULY 2017 In this inspection, we used the term stalking for behaviour that constituted harassment and where the perpetrator appeared to be fixated and/or obsessed with another.4 Legislation Under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, it is an offence for a person to pursue a course of conduct that amounts to harassment of another individual, and that they know (or ought to know) amounts to harassment.5 The Act defines harassment and states: “References to harassing a person include alarming the person or causing the person distress.”6 A ‘course of conduct’ in the case of harassment of a single person must involve conduct on at least two occasions. The course of conduct in relation to two or more persons means conduct on at least one occasion in relation to each of those persons.7 Before the introduction of stalking legislation, there was debate about the need to define stalking specifically in law.8 One concern raised was that being too prescriptive might limit unduly the application of the offence. As a result, section 2A(3) of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 instead gives examples of behaviours associated with stalking "in particular circumstances" (without detailing what these are). The list is not exhaustive but gives an indication of the types of behaviour that may be displayed in a stalking offence. Section 2A(2) of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 specifies when a person’s course of conduct amounts