Tens of thousands of young women stalked in Netherlands last year

Tens of thousands of teenage girls and young women were stalked in the Netherlands last year. Victims faced physical and online harassment like constant spying and unwanted messages for an extended period, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported. The perpetrator is relatively often an ex, the statistics office said.

Last year, 225,000 Netherlands residents were victims of stalkers, 137,000 women and 90,000 men. That is about 2 percent of the population. Teenage girls and young women between the ages of 15 and 25 were most often the victims of stalking at 3 percent of this age group.

Women are more likely to know their stalker, 66 percent versus 48 percent of men. For women, the perpetrators were almost always men. Men often do not know the gender of their stalker. Women are more likely to be stalked by an ex, 22 percent compared to 11 percent of male victims.

Last year, 74 percent of victims said that the stalking had at least some emotional or psychological impact on them. Women were impacted the most, with 55 percent reporting feeling less safe, 28 percent having trouble sleeping, and 29 percent feeling anxious. Among men, those percentages were 38, 20, and 14, in order.

Only 22 percent of stalking victims filed a police report. That percentage is about the same among women and men. The reasons why they didn’t file a report were also largely the same. 33 percent thought it wouldn’t help. 23 percent thought it wasn’t a serious enough crime to report. Women more often didn’t report their stalker because they were worried about unpleasant reactions or revenge (17 vs 9 percent).