Stalking in Österreich

Stalking: 2000 cases in l1 months
By Pat Maadi

- Around 300 cases reported each month.
- Victims: Women make up 90 percent.

Vienna. The effects of the Anti Stalking Law, which went into effect in Austria in July 2006, have exceeded all expectations. Instead of the estimated 300 cases annually, roughly 2000 cases were reported to police in the first eleven months that the law was in effect. Police say victims report an average of 200 cases per month. Ninety percent of the stalking victims are said to be women who are abused following a separation or a divorce. Men make up for eighty percent of the alleged stalkers.

Justice Minister Maria Berger of the Social Democrats (SPÖ), on a visit to the province of Burgenland, said in less than a year four people were sentenced for stalking in the province, but in the rest of the country around 150 sentences were handed out. This shows that the victims of violence in the family, mostly women and children, were speaking out, she said.

And she expected that the sentence for stalking could be increased from three to six months in the future.

source: 29.06.2007
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