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Stalking Complaints Jump 32% Over 3 Years, StatsCan
Reports
November 30, 2000
Stalking appears to be on the rise, says Statistics
Canada. The agency said 106 police forces reported a total of 5,382
incidents of criminal harassment last year, up 32% from 1996.
StatsCan cautioned, however, that the increase in stalking "may have
been the result of a greater public and police awareness of potential
seriousness of this crime, which only became a Criminal Code offence in
1993." Women were victims of 75% of all stalking in
1999. Most victims knew the accused stalker and in many
instances the stalker and the victim were involved in a previous
relationship. Most male victims--44%--were stalked by a casual
acquaintance. Fewer than two per cent of stalking incidents in
1999 resulted in physical injury. But "the obsessive and
repetitive nature of stalking can have a profound emotional impact on
victims." Stalking usually involves threats, harassing
phone calls, common assault or mischief. There were 9 stalking
related homicides in Canada from 1997 to 1999, each involving a female
being stalked, and subsequently killed, by a recently separated husband,
ex-partner or ex-lover.
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