Although stalking is a widespread phenomenon, the police reporting rate in Spain is low. This is one of the conclusions that can be drawn from the study published by UIC Barcelona Faculty of Law lecturer Victoria Fernández in the Spanish Journal of Legal Medicine. In the article she analyses the main factors that influence the decision to report stalking as well as the reasons why this crime is not reported to the police.

The report was based on a sample of 1.773 Spanish university students, 71.9% of whom were women and 27.4% men, with an average age of 21.35. The results indicated that 35.6% of the students (79.5% of whom were women) have been subjected to harassment or stalking once in their lives, but only 5.5% of the victims reported the situation to the police.

The study concluded that being a woman, receiving threats aimed at harming third parties in the victim's environment, and receiving direct threats are the main reasons to report stalking or harassment. It also demonstrated that more than half of the victims who do not report the crime justify this by thinking that the situation is not important enough to bring to police attention.

“Although the rate of reporting the crime of harassment to the police is low in Spain, the seriousness of this behaviour means there is a greater opportunity to report,” explains Victoria Fernández. She also believes that prior awareness of this phenomenon is necessary so as to “prevent serious behaviour and increase the visibility of this crime”.

Reference material:

Fernández Cruz, Victoria. (2021) Formal coping strategies in stalking victimisation: factors associated with police reporting. Revista Española de Medicina Legal (Spanish Journal of Legal Medicine.) 10.1016/j.reml.2021.02.003