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Online and offline stalking victimisation in the Crime Survey for England and Wales

Stalking is a global phenomenon described as a pattern of repeated, intrusive behaviours that cause fear, alarm, and distress in the victim/survivor. Over the past two decades, offline stalking, a repeated pattern of behaviours such as physically following a person, which causes fear and distress, has been complemented through online and digital means also known as cyberstalking. Cyberstalking includes the use of the internet, email, and/or systems such as geo-location trackers to further the perpetrators’ reach and amplify the feelings of harassment experienced by a victim/survivor. 

Technology-facilitated harassment is increasingly common, but there is a lack of longitudinal analysis quantifying cyberstalking and its impact on victim/survivors. To address this empirical evidence-based gap, VISION researchers Drs Madeleine Janickyj and Leonie Tanczer at University College of London and Dr Niels Blom at University of Manchester, examined Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) data from the years 2012 to 2020 to provide the first nationally representative look at cyberstalking over the last decade. Their paper, Online and Offline Stalking Victimisation in the Crime Survey for England and Wales: Its Predictors and Victim/Survivors’ Views on Criminalisation, assesses which demographic groups are most likely to experience it across two countries of the United Kingdom (UK; for example, England and Wales) and also explores how these experiences affect the perception of the victim/survivors.

The analysis, involving weighted and multinomial logistic regression, revealed considerable differences between online and offline stalking behaviours. Cyberstalking is not as widespread, but is increasing in prevalence faster than its offline counterpart.

The researchers also assessed the relationship between perpetrators and victim/survivors and found that less than 50 per cent of cyberstalking victim/survivors had an existing relationship with their stalker. Moreover, various demographic groups, such as females, the LGB community, and younger participants, are more likely to be stalked via both online and offline means. While females are more likely to view what happened to them as a crime, the latter two (LGB and younger participants) more often perceive these experiences as wrong but not necessarily a crime. Although these experiences increasingly affect participants, they do not alter their perception of the event in the same way, exposing that these online experiences are thought of differently from those offline.

Recommendation

To further the analyses of cyber-enabled and cyberstalking, some adjustments could be made to the existing stalking experiences that participants are asked about. One current question merges receiving cards, letters, or text messages, combining online and offline experiences. Separating this item into two questions would give more accurate data regarding cyberstalking.

To download: Online and Offline Stalking Victimisation in the Crime Survey for England and Wales: Its Predictors and Victim/Survivors’ Views on Criminalisation

To cite: Madeleine Janickyj, Niels Blom, Leonie Maria Tanczer, Online and Offline Stalking Victimisation in the Crime Survey for England and Wales: Its Predictors and Victim/Survivors’ Views on Criminalisation, The British Journal of Criminology, 2025;, azaf064, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azaf064

For further information, please contact Maddy at m.janickyj@ucl.ac.uk

Photograph from Adobe Stock subscription

United to End Violence Against Women and Girls: An Online Animated Campaign  

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a pressing issue in Iran, a Middle Eastern country marked by its patriarchal structure and systematic and pervasive gender discrimination. Educational programmes addressing this issue are scarce, and cultural barriers often hinder open discussion. The United to End Violence Against Women and Girls campaign aims to break this silence through a series of animated videos in Farsi and English and images designed to inform public discourse and to empower victims to seek support.

 The United to End Violence Against Women and Girls project was led by VISION researchers Ladan Hashemi and Sally McManus, in collaboration with colleagues from other UK universities including the University of Bristol, Goldsmiths University, Animation Research Centre at the University for the Creative Arts, and Leeds Beckett University. 

They worked with an animation production team in Iran, a social media advisor, and two advisory groups. The advisory groups were Mehre Shams Afarid, an Iran-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), and IKWRO, a London-based charity providing services to women victims of violence from the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) region—to incorporate culturally specific insights.

Although the project initially focused on Iran, engaging with the UK-based NGO revealed an interest in extending its reach. As a result, English subtitles were added to make the animations accessible to a wider audience. This collaboration helped the content resonate with audiences both in Iran and within the global diaspora community, particularly those from the MENA region.

The animations are grounded in evidence from a survey of 453 women in Iran, which explored the manifestation of various forms of VAWG in Iran and women’s perspectives on how to eliminate it. The survey was designed by Fatima Babakhani, CEO of Mehre Shams Afarid.

Key findings from participants’ open-ended responses to the survey showed that, despite structural inequalities and deeply ingrained societal, cultural, and religious norms that perpetuate VAWG, change is possible through education and legal reforms.

As one survey participant noted: “Unfortunately, many still don’t understand what violence truly is. Raising awareness is the solution.”

The first four United to End Violence Against Women and Girls campaign animations focus on coercive control, economic abuse, technology-facilitated abuse, and active bystander interventions, with two more animations in development.

With guidance from an Iranian social media advisor, a digital strategy was developed to maximise the campaign’s impact. Instagram was chosen as the primary distribution platform, as it is the most widely used social media platform in Iran, with over 47 million users. The animations are also shared on YouTube to further extend the campaign’s reach.

Influencers and women’s rights activists with followings from thousands to millions were partnered with to amplify the campaign’s reach. The online campaign officially launched 25th November, on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls.

By leveraging evidence-based content and strategic partnerships, we hope to spark meaningful conversations and drive change across Iran and the diaspora communities from the MENA region.

Join us in raising awareness and advocating for change. Please follow and share the campaign links on your social media to help spread the message.

Link to Instagram page

Link to YouTube channel

This project was funded by City St George’s, University of London Higher Education Impact Fund (HEIF) Knowledge Exchange and by the UKPRP VISION research consortium.

For further information, please contact Ladan at ladan.hashemi@city.ac.uk

Cyberbullying and social media user-verification

Social media platforms enable people to communicate in both positive and negative ways, including in ways that may be abusive and bullying. Abusive messaging can harm mental health, and has been shown to increase during periods of public crisis, such the Covid pandemic. There is a need to better identify and classify cyberbullying and online abuse, to improve the design of deterrence strategies.

In a recently published study VISION researcher Dr Lifang Li explored how the ‘verification status’ of social media user accounts was associated with cyberbullying. Verification refers to when a social media user’s identity has been confirmed, for example by the checking of an identity card. Lifang examined data from China’s main social media platform, Weibo, to classify messages that had been posted during the pandemic about people who were diagnosed with the coronavirus. She examined the content of posts made by users who were verified and unverified, used techniques to understand how often anger-related words were used, and measured the extent to which the posts got shared.

Posts that could be classified as critical of people diagnosed with Covid during the pandemic (for example, describing them as ‘reckless’ or ‘selfish’ for having contracted the infection) were in the minority, most social media users were understanding or neutral in their online communications. Lifang found that posts that were critical of people diagnosed with Covid were more likely to use anger-related words. Although not a focus of the paper, official verification of a social media user’s identity did not appear to be strongly related to how likely they were to post or repost critical views.

However, male verified social media users were more likely than unverified or female users to have their posts shared. This suggests that their online activity may have a disproportionate impact on other users. Cyberbullying monitoring may need to consider such differences, especially in the context of public health crises.

This study made novel use of machine learning techniques, which may help other researchers developing algorithms to identify abusive posts online.

For further information, please read the publication at Frontiers | Social media users’ attitudes toward cyberbullying during the COVID-19 pandemic: associations with gender and verification status (frontiersin.org) or contact VISION researcher and study co-author Angus Roberts at angus.roberts@kcl.ac.uk.

Photo from licensed Adobe Stock library