Gender differences in stalking, threats and online abuse reported by Victorian politicians

Figures & data

Table 1. Summary of response rates and key findings from surveys of stalking experiences of parliamentarians with similar methodologies.

Study authors	Location of study	Proportion of all parliamentarians participating in survey(%)	Key findings
James, Farnham, et al., 2016; James, Sukhwal, et al., 2016	United Kingdom	38	81% of respondents had experienced aggressive or intrusive behaviour from constituents. More than half the respondents (53%) reported behaviours that met stringent study criteria for stalking.
Pathé et al., 2014	Queensland, Australia	48	93% of respondents had experienced at least one form of harassment, most commonly alarming behaviour at the constituency office and receipt of inappropriate correspondence or telephone calls.
Bjelland & Bjørgo, 2014	Norway	56	84% reported some level of unwanted harassment.
Every-Palmer et al., 2015	New Zealand	84	87% reported some level of unwanted harassment.

Figure 1. Age of survey respondents.

Figure 2. Number of years in Parliament of survey respondents.

Figure 3. Political alignment of survey respondents, progressive to conservative. Each dot represents a participant, plotting their stated level of progressive politics against their stated level of conservative politics.

Figure 4. Number of different people responsible for unwanted approach/persistent contact.

Figure 5. Number of times MPs experienced threats.

Figure 6. Percentage of MPs reporting abuse or threats on various topics.

Figure 7. Reported responses to online abuse and threats.

Figure 8. Percentage of MPs who reported lifestyle changes in response to unwanted approaches, threats, stalking, harassment and online abuse.

Figure 9. Percentage of MPs reporting concern or fear as a consequence of their experiences.

Figure 10. Percentage of MPs who sought assistance and from where.

James, D. V., Farnham, F. R., Sukhwal, S., Jones, K., Carlisle, J., & Henley, S. (2016). Aggressive/intrusive behaviours, harassment and stalking of members of the United Kingdom Parliament: A prevalence study and cross-sectional comparison. The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology, 27(2), 177–197. https://doi.org/10.1080/14789949.2015.1124908

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James, D. V., Sukhwal, S., Farnham, F. R., Evans, J., Barrie, C., Taylor, A., & Wilson, S. P. (2016). Harassment and stalking of Members of the United Kingdom Parliament: Associations and consequences. The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology, 27(3), 309–330. https://doi.org/10.1080/14789949.2015.1124909

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Pathé, M., Phillips, J., Perdacher, E., & Heffernan, E. (2014). The harassment of Queensland Members of Parliament: A mental health concern. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 21(4), 577–584. https://doi.org/10.1080/13218719.2013.858388

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Bjelland, H. F., & Bjørgo, T. (2014). Trusler og Trusselhendelser mot Politikere: En Spɸrreundersɸkelse Blant Norske Stortingsrepresentanter og Regjeringsmedlemmer [‘Threats and threat events against politicians: A survey of Norwegian Members of Parliament and Government Officials’].

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Every-Palmer, S., Barry-Walsh, J., & Pathé, M. (2015). Harassment, stalking, threats and attacks targeting New Zealand politicians: A mental health issue. The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 49(7), 634–641.

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