Would you Stalk Cheryl Cole for a Scratch Card?
Monday, 20.02.2012
MP’s in England and Wales have called for stalking to be made a criminal offense. Campaigners recently called for an investigation after claims that in comparison to Scotland, where stalking was made illegal in 2010, the rules and regulations surrounding the act are inadequate and don’t protect victims.
Following a parliamentary inquiry the Home Office now say that they will “carefully consider” all proposals on stalking, at the present time cases regarding the act are dealt with under harassment regulations, but campaigners say “the criminal justice system fails to take the issue seriously”.
Statistics from the British Crime Survey suggest there may be as many as 12,000 cases of stalking each year in England and Wales, but from that only 2% of cases lead to convictions.
Celebrities are often targeted by stalkers, police admitted in the past that celebrity stalkers are a “real threat” and that “the situation isn’t getting taken seriously enough”, often the media play a big part in combatting celebrity stalking with little help from the justice system.
The Geordie princess, Cheryl Cole is a victim of stalking; she was targeted by a teenage boy who managed to get hold of Dermot O Leary’s phone number and left threatening voicemails for Cheryl. Our English rose Keira Knightley was also bombarded with gifts and letter by Marek Daniluk, he would wait for her around her flat and outside events, and he will stand trial in June this year. This isn’t the first stalker of Keira, this will in fact be here fifth!
You would think that it would just be the beautiful celebrities that were victims of stalking, but it’s not, everyday people have fallen victim too, this includes cyber stalking. The internet is a large sphere so there is always a danger of coming into contact with someone that you don’t want to, but the dangers of cyber stalking is increasing and it is reported to now be more of a threat than face to face stalking.
Last April a report found that 40% of cyber stalking victims are men with women being more prone to face to face stalking. It was also found that harassment via email, social networking sites, bingo sites and dating sites was increasingly common and young people were particularly vulnerable. A British Crime Survey in 2006 found that there was up to 5 million people who had experienced stalking each year, but there were no official figures on the percentage who were cyberstalked.
I am not saying cancel your broad band subscription, lock yourself in doors and only live your life through Eastenders and Hollyoaks, no, if anything those programs would scare you more. You can still nip out for shopping and pick up your scratch card or national lottery tickets, there is a very small percentage of people that have every been harassed. Cyber stalking is not a threat to those who are careful and don’t give out personal details so by all means your daily online scratch card and social networking can still be part of your life without fear of a spooky follower.
