Increased reporting of domestic violence has sparked a jump in the number of stalking offences.
The latest Crime Statistics Agency data reports on 300 people being charged with stalking, harassment and threatening behaviour in the past financial year – a 233 per cent increase from the 2011-12 financial year.
Melton Crime Investigation Unit’s Detective Senior Sergeant Barry Jenks said people, especially victims of domestic violence, felt more comfortable reporting stalking by current or former partners.
“Just because there has been an increase in the number of offences doesn’t mean there was that much more stalking overall,” Detective Senior Sergeant Jenks said. “Some of that increase is around more contemporary interpretations of the stalking offence.”
About 20 years ago, police were reluctant to charge people with stalking. They were told the stalking must happen repeatedly and over a period of time.
But in the past few years, police have been confident of charging people with stalking, prompting victims to come forward.
“Hopefully, we’ve made the environment more open to victims of family violence, so they can come forward with anything, including stalking,” Detective Senior Sergeant Jenks said.
He said most of the cases involved perpetrators and victims who knew each other.
Breaches of court orders climbed by nearly 500 per cent in the four years to June 30, 2015.
This represents almost 900 incidents in which people were charged with breaching orders.
Detective Senior Sergeant Jenks said more reporting of domestic violence, and the increased number of intervention orders as a result, resulted in more people breaching orders, and being charged.
A dedicated domestic violence unit at Melton police was a factor in policing breaches.
The latest crime data reveals almost 3800 people were charged with theft and about 1200 charged with burglary. For the good news, homicide cases dropped from seven in 2013-14 to less than three in 2014-15, while cases of arson fell from 137 to 108.
