Harassment and Stalking

    • Your opportunity to be heard:

    Harassment and Stalking

    The technical definition of harassment is “the act of systematic and/or continued, unwanted and annoying actions of one party or a group, including threats and demands”.  Basically, if someone is bothering you again and again, including threats and demands, you can report it as harassment.

    Harassment can include (but is not limited to) the following: – 

    • Hate incidents where the abuse involves your race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age or disability
    • Intimidating behaviour
    • Violence or the threat of violence to another person
    • Abusive language
    • Malicious phone calls, texts and emails
    • Stalking
    • Begging
    • Hoax calls to the emergency services or other third parties

    You need to report incidents of harassment to the relevant agencies.  Click here to find out who to report it to and how. 

    If you want to read up further, then look at the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) who unveiled a package of measures in 2018 to improve the way the criminal justice system deals with both stalking and harassment.  See here for information on their plans. 

    Stalking, mentioned above and defined as unwanted or obsessive attention by an individual or group, is covered in more detail by the National Stalking Helpline and therefore the information is not repeated here.   There are also some useful websites such as Paladin and Suzy Lamplugh if you need further advice. 

    Bullying, including cyber-bullying, is also a form of harassment.  See the excellent work of the Anti-Bullying Alliance for further information and guidance. 

    If you feel like you are being targeted because of who you are, this may be a Hate Incident or Hate Crime which the agencies should treat seriously. For more information on Hate Crime see here. 

    If you have repeatedly reported harassment to the relevant agencies but the problem still persists you may meet the threshold for an ASB Case Review, which will look to review your case with an aim of producing a multi-agency action plan to address the ongoing ASB.  Check out our Case Review page for further information about what this involves and how you can apply.