Aggressive/intrusive behaviours, harassment and stalking of members of the United Kingdom parliament: a prevalence study and cross-national comparison

Abstract

Politicians suffer intrusive and aggressive behaviours from members of the public, often lone actors fixated on personal grievances. Few explorations of intrusive behaviours towards politicians have been published; their results are not directly comparable. We surveyed intrusive/aggressive behaviours towards UK members of parliament (MPs); our survey instrument was then administered to MPs at three other parliaments (Queensland, New Zealand, and Norway), providing a cross-national, four-site comparison. 239 MPs completed the UK survey. This 38% response rate produced prevalence rates remarkably similar to the other sites, New Zealand having an 84% response rate. 81% of UK MPs had experienced one or more of the 12 behaviours specified, the mean being five. 18% had been subject to attack/attempted attack, 42% to threats to harm and 22% to property damage. In 53% of respondents, experiences met definitions of stalking or harassment. This has implications for the provision of risk assessment and management.

Keywords:

• Violence
• stalking
• harassment
• members of parliament
• lone actors
• risk assessment

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the 239 MPs who agreed to provide data for this survey. We are grateful to Sue Adams and Michele Pathé for their assistance in the design of the questionnaire. We acknowledge the support of the Parliamentary Security Committee, the political party whips, the Sergeant-at-Arms and the Office of Security and Counter-terrorism in carrying out this research. We are particularly grateful to Mark Harvey, Peter Mason and Susan Willmington, who made the study possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.