In 112 recent cases of stalking and harassment reviewed by UK police watchdogs, "not a single one was dealt with properly," reports the BBC. The report, "Living in Fear," found that victims of harassment and stalking were widely disregard and left at risk, and often told that the harassment they received was their own fault.
One in five women and one in ten men report being stalked in the UK. The Crime Survey for England and Wales (as quoted by the BBC) reports 4.6% of women and 2.7% of men aged 16-59 were victims in 2015-16.
One victim said police made her feel she was to blame for receiving abusive messages on social media. "It was my fault for being on Facebook," she said.
The report also said police officers were failing to recognise repeated signs of a stalker, by treating each complaint in isolation rather than being part of a pattern.
That, in turn, meant police and prosecutors did not see the bigger picture and appreciate the full scale of the harm suffered by the victim.
Helen Pearson, from Devon, reported her stalker to the police 125 times over five years.
"They literally didn't want to know," she said. "I was a nuisance."
One victim publicly refused to accept an apology from Devon and Cornwall Police after being attacked by her stalker with a pair of scissors.
Helen Pearson, 34, suffered neck and face wounds when her neighbour Joseph Willis attacked her with scissors in an Exeter graveyard.
She had made 125 reports to Devon and Cornwall Police about Willis' stalking before the attack in 2013. The force said its "investigation and victim care did not meet the high standards we expect".
Ms Pearson said the apology "didn't do anything" for her
A key point of failure is the police's use of "Police Information Notices" to deal with suspects. In effect suspects are ticketed for harassment--with no serious threat of investigation or punishment--but in accepting the ticket, waive the right to appeal or further due process. Even The Daily Mail, the evil pulsating Nazi brain of British misogyny, condemns the bureaucratic moral hazards in play. Everyone loses--victim, suspect, public--except the police, who get to crumble up a problem and toss it in the bin. The report demands the immediate scrapping of the whole system.
