Samenvatting

Over nine years after the enactment of the Dutch anti-stalking provision there are still no figures detailing the prevalence of stalking in the Netherlands. This article aims to estimate the prevalence and nature of this form of victimization within the Dutch population. In order to generate these findings the results of the national Police Monitor of 2001 were analysed. Of the 88,607 respondents 24 percent reported a lifetime rate of stalking victimization and for 1.2 to 3.1 percent of the respondents the harassment had begun in the 12 months previous to the study. With almost one in three women (28.6%) and almost one in five men (19.2%), women were significantly more likely to report having been stalked at some time during their lives. In line with previous research age was significantly related to life-time stalking with younger people having greater odds of reporting victimization. (Cor)relations were furthermore found between stalking and having a job, being originally of another than the Dutch nationality and education. But, apart from gender, the odds ratios for those socio-demographic variables were only very small. In most cases (65.6%) the stalker only used one method of harassment with unwanted telephone calls being the method that appeared most in isolation (65.7%). 59.1% of the victims indicated that they felt threatened because of the repetitive harassment. A remarkable finding was that in over 56 percent of the cases the identity of the stalker was unknown.