Mr Matt Flood2, Ms Cleo Brandt1
1Cleo Brandt Consultancy And Training, , Australia, 2Victoria Police, , Australia
Biography:
Matthew Flood is an Inspector with Victoria Police. Matt has over 25 years of policing experience including Investigations and project management. Matt has specialist training in stalking risk assessment and management, and in 2022-23, he was project lead on the Victoria Police Stalking Project. Matt formed part of a small team of experts to deliver training and provide case management advice.
Cleo Brandt is an Investigative Psychologist who worked for the Netherlands National Police. Since moving to Australia, she consulted to Victoria Police and subsequently worked for Family Violence Command as co-lead on their stalking project.
Abstract:
Persistent stalking episodes pose significant risk to victims and can be difficult for police and other responders to recognise, contextualise, and manage. Police respond to, and investigate, crimes that have occurred, but stalking is a crime in action, often continuing after the initial report. This suggests the need for ongoing case management, victim safety risk assessment, and evaluation of response effectiveness. Currently in Victoria, stalking responses are influenced by whether there is an existing relationship between victim and offender. If parties are ex-intimates, a family violence response is initiated, including access to family violence service system support. If victim and perpetrator are acquaintances, or unknown to each other, a generalist response is triggered, with reduced access to support.
This research project examined gaps in existing stalking responses regarding type of relationship between victim and perpetrator, to explore how a multidisciplinary approach for all stalking cases might improve responses, victim safety, and perpetrator management. Using a comparative case study design, this project used mixed methods across two stages of data collection with different (but comparable) policing units (e.g., frontline, family violence and crime investigation specialists) in Victoria and the United Kingdom. The project operationalised two case study scenarios formatted as an online survey with police across the participating jurisdictions to explore how relationship type and risk management orientation influenced responses.