Do protection orders (PO) work for stalking victims?

I worked on a campaign to enact stalking laws in Malaysia. A key thing we advocated for was creating protection orders (or restraining orders).

This seem a logical "good practice", but what does the research say?

What I found

Well, the first thing I found: there doesn't seem to be much evidence available. This is understandable – as you can imagine, it's hard to conduct experiments to test protection orders.

I did find this meta-analysis, that suggests POs but aren't enough to keep victims safe – in cases of domestic violence that involve stalking.

This isn't to say that POs aren't useful. In practice, it means that POs must be combined with other interventions.

Key points about the meta-analysis

The meta-analysis examines whether protection orders (PO) are effective in reducing domestic violence. Stalking comes in, as some domestic violence cases involve stalking.

Overall, the analysis finds there is "emerging evidence" that POs reduce "subsequent violence to some extent". However, this is for domestic violence cases that don't involve stalking and a few other factors.

So what about domestic violence cases that do involve stalking? Doesn't look promising. The analysis reports:

"All five studies [included in the meta-analysis] investigating stalking reported stalking to be a significant predictive factor for ongoing PO violations and increased physical, psychological, and sexual violence to victims, as well as poorer mental health and a lower sense of safety."

Why? Potentially because stalking is harder to prove and is taken less urgently by authorities.

The analysis concludes:

"effectiveness of POs [for stalking victims] may only be achieved ... when POs are combined with community-based interventions that offer further education, support, and resources to victims together with greater surveillance of offenders."

A bit on the meta-analysis's methodology:

• The analyses include 25 studies, covering 31,586 participants.

• All studies were US-based, except 1 study (Sweden).

• Most victims in the studies were female, while most offenders were male.

• Of the 25 studies: "19 were case series, 3 used a case control study design, 2 were retrospective cohort studies, and 1 was a prospective cohort study."