Almost 2.7 million Australians have been stalked since their 15th birthday, the equivalent of about one in seven people.

In a first, the Australian Bureau of Statistics personal safety survey released on Wednesday reveals one in five women and one in 15 men have reported being stalked.

Women are eight times more likely to be stalked by a male than a female, while male victims are stalked at a similar rate by both men and women, according to the bureau’s head of crime and justice statistics William Milne.

“Women who were more likely to experience stalking included young women, those who were studying or renting and those under financial stress,” he said.

Stalking is defined as behaviour purposely causing fear or distress on more than one occasion including following or watching someone in person, loitering around their home or work, keeping tabs on them through an electronic device, maintaining unwanted contact, hacking or impersonating them online.

One in 10 women who took part in the 2021-22 survey said they were stalked in the past decade, three quarters of them by a male they knew.

Some 45 per cent nominated a former or current intimate partner and half that group were stalked for more than 12 months.

“Half of the women who were stalked by a male intimate partner were assaulted or threatened with assault by that same partner,” Mr Milne said.

Swinburne University criminal justice and criminology senior lecturer Rachael Burgin described the results as shocking and said it showed stalking was not uncommon.

“We typically think about stalking as being someone in a bush following someone down the street but actually we’re talking about a whole range of behaviours that include monitoring where somebody is, who they speak to, what they wear,” Dr Burgin said.

“That really is even more common in the modern world, where we all have essentially a tracking device in our pockets.”

Dr Burgin, who is also chief executive of the Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy, said while stalkers can secretly install spyware or find other covert ways to monitor victims’ devices, there’s a need for wider discussion.

“We need to think about and really have robust conversations about the normalisation of monitoring and stalking behaviours among young people,” she said.

“It’s seen as acceptable to share passwords and we’re not having conversations about … what a respectful relationship looks like and what is not appropriate.”

Dr Burgin said stalking often isn’t taken seriously enough and there are examples of it leading to homicide, such as in the case of 23-year-old Melbourne woman Celeste Manno, killed by former colleague Luay Sako.

He stabbed her 23 times after breaking into her home as she slept in November 2020 and was sentenced to 36 years behind bars for her murder earlier this year.

Alleged serious domestic violence offenders on bail in NSW are monitored electronically using GPS technology and Dr Burgin is calling for greater monitoring of high risk offenders with intervention orders out against them, even before they are charged or convicted.

“We need to see new ways of responding to stalking offenders, particularly high risk offenders, and that should include things like electronic monitoring attached to intervention orders,” she said.

“At the moment, intervention orders aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. 

“Let’s put some teeth behind those.”

Lifeline 13 11 14

beyondblue 1300 22 4636

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)

National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028