"Any person who willfully, maliciously, and repeatedly follows or harasses another person and who makes a credible threat with the intent to place that person in reasonable fear for his or her safety, or the safety of his or her immediate family...is guilty of the crime of stalking."
Simply speaking, stalking involves one person's obsessive behavior toward another person, causing that victim to fear for his/her safety. The stalker usually begins his/her stalking behavior with annoying, threatening or obscene telephone calls or written/electronic communications. The stalker's actions, however, can escalate quickly and without provocation! The stalker may ultimately follow the victim of his/her obsession, often staking out the victim's residence and/or workplace. Stalkers are also beginning to use the World Wide Web to harass their victims electronically by posting their names, social security numbers, sending e-mails though relay services in hopes of anonymizing themselves so that their victim will not be able to prove the e-mail's origin, etc.
WARNING SIGNS OF DANGER
-Verbal/written threats to hurt, kill or maim
-Paranoia
-Irrational violent statements or associations
-Romantic obsession: persistent calls, letters, gifts
-History of violence
-History of several failed and short lived marriages and/or relationships
-Significant personal/family/financial stressors
-History of mental illness
-Persistent physical actions or boundary crossing
-Verbal/written third party harassment and/or threats
-Frequent hang ups at one's residence/place of employment immediately upon arrival
COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF STALKERS
-Desire for power and control
-Obsessive, bizarre delusions, jealousy, anger, and revenge
-Seek to win or maintain the affection of the victim
-Either intense attraction to the victim or extreme hatred
-Socially maladjusted
-Exhibit low self-esteem
-Emotionally immature
-Abuse of alcohol or other drugs
-Criminal record
-Mental illness
-Mirror behavior patterns common in domestic violence cases
-Erratic employment or lack thereof
-Unable to succeed in relationships
Tips from the Stalked for the Stalked....
*Disclaimer: This information is intended for suggestive purposes only and is not to be construed as a substitute legal advice.! (Where details state U.S.A detail..use appropriate country's system)
The listing below contains several suggestions I would give to the stalking victim. The vast majority of these are taken directly from my own experience from advice given to me when I discussed safety planning issues with a counselor from the D.A.'s (District Attorney's) office.
On Telephone Harassment
1. Aquire a second phone line at your residence if you can afford it. Let your stalker continue to telephone your original phone line and start giving others (your employers, your friends, family) your second line. Either keep an answering machine on the original line or keep it disconnected. When stalkers feel that they have lost touch with their victims, they tend to show up.
2. Call your telephone company and ask about obtaining a priority ringing service. By doing this, you might be able to avoid having to change your telephone number. If known, program your stalker's home telephone numbers with the service (or any numbers you feel they are likely to call from and know of) and when he/she calls to harass you from either of those numbers you will be alerted to the identity of the caller by a distinctive ring. (*note: if your stalker is calling from a payphone or later catches on and begins to, a priority ring will not help) This allows for you to have some peace of mind when you answer the telephone and also is very useful for reporting annoying telephone calls to the telephone company's annoyance center. This is also preferable to call blocking, as call blocking might incite the stalker into some form of undesired action.
3. Make a police report about harassing telephone calls the moment they start. You can then ask your local law enforcement about obtaining a phone trap. In generally all cases, you are required to have a police report to accompany your request when you call your telephone company, so the police report is necessary. The phone trap works like this: when the harassing call comes through, jot down the exact time (within three minutes grace period) of the call. Keep a notebook and small clock by the telephone for convenience. At the end of the day give the telephone company all the times of the applicable incoming calls. If you notice a lot of harassing behavior left on your answering machine, get an answering machine with a time stamp on it (so you can record the time of the incoming calls when you are away so you may later report them ) and a taped rather than a digital recording system to it. It is imperative to keep all harassing activity recorded, labeled and carefully kept in a safe place so that it can later be booked into evidence as needed.
4. Another option which counters telephone harassment is to obtain a caller I.D. box and get blocking (through your phone company) for all incoming calls which do not identify the calling number on the box. An unlisted party trying to reach you can usually elect to unblock their number using a prompt, so friends and family can still reach you if their number is unlisted. However, this option can prevent law enforcement offices and the District Attorney's office from being able to reach you, as their numbers will not show up. Also, if an important call is coming through to you from a pay phone, in most instances, you will miss the call. I personally do not suggest this option, however others might deem it appropriate for their personal situation.
General Safety Planning Ideas
1. Get a restraining order! I cannot emphasize this enough. There is some crap I've seen on the web lately on other resource sites which suggests not to obtain a restraining order as it "might incite the stalker." While it is true that obtaining a restraining order will not guarantee one ounce of true protection, once a restraining order is obtained law enforcement agencies and the D.A.'s office can begin to intervene with legal action.
2. Alert neighbors, employers, fellow employees, etc. to your situation. Give them as much information as you can about the stalker to include a photograph of him/her, information about their general m.o., make of their vehicle, etc. If you live in a college residence hall, apartment or some other form of community housing, give the manager/director of the community all possible information and ask them to address it at community meetings, post information on bulletin boards, etc. It is also a good idea to spread copies of your restraining order to people who live immediately close to you in case they need to call the police.
3. Many stalkers will start with pranks, things which they understand will be hard to be proved in connection with him/her directly. Get a locking gas cap at your local automotive store. These generally cost about $8-$12 and provide a lot of peace of mind. As for tire slashing, t.p.'ing, spray painting, property damaging etc- make immediate reports to law enforcement and give a copy of your restraining order and/or a full description of the suspect. Pranking is very typical among stalkers. Stalkers have a need to make their victims feel violated, fearful and frusterated. They need to perceive that they are in control.
4. Leave a t.v., radio, light, etc. on when leaving your residence. Many stalkers will break into one's residence while their victim is away in order to make them feel violated and fearful of them.
5. If you change addresses remember that your stalker can simply go to the DMV or the Post Office and exchange your old information for your new information. Voter registration also will release your personal information upon request. To prevent this, I suggest looking under "mailboxes" in your local yellow pages and look for a place which offers mailbox rental services. There are many advantages to this over a p.o. box. A business which offers mailbox rentals generally gives you a street address (the address of the business) at which you receive your mail. This way you can have all your checks printed with this address (remember, even supermarkets now take that personal information off customer checks and sell it. Your info then hits the world wide web, certain 4-11 type listings, etc. I would also stress that all credit card bills, etc. go to this new address as creditors notoriously sell out your information!) You may also receive all mail at this address generally, to include UPS and other packages. This cuts down on having to use your protected new resident address for much. In fact, I would suggest not using your home address for anything at all. As soon as you obtain a box at such an establishment, put in a forwarding order immediately. Do not let on that your new personal mail box address is anything other than your home address. Companies will promise you privacy, however in most cases, it will be sold or otherwise distributed for marketing regardless of whether or not you have explained your situation.
6. Call the two major credit agencies immediately and have a red flag put on your credit report. Equifax: (800) 525-6285 and Experian: (888) 690-8086. Stalkers usually can obtain your social security number, mother's maiden name, etc. and will often pose as you with this information to obtain your credit information.
7. Research your stalker. Go to a private investigative service and have a background check run. Find out if other people have taken out restraining orders against that person. If so, how far were they apart from one another?
8. Research yourself on the net. If you type in your name on search engines, will any information show up? You can find backwards telephone listings on the net, unlisted phone numbers, personal addresses, etc.- what information is listed about you on the net? Find out . You can elect to submit or change any information about you on these information sites.
UK Cyberstalking Law
The law in the UK provides a number of remedies for people suffering from Cyberstalking or other forms of Harassment.
For legal purposes the UK is divided into 3 separate jurisdictions namely "England and Wales", "Scotland" and "Northern Ireland".
The legal system and law in England and Wales is very similar to that in Northern Ireland but the legal system in Scotland is very distinct.
Most of the information in this site relates to the legal position in England and Wales.
Under Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1998 it is an offence to send an indecent, offensive or threatening letter, electronic communication or other article to another person and under Section 43 of the Telecommunications Act 1984 it is a similar offence to send a telephone message which is indecent offensive or threatening. In both cases the offence is punishable with up to six months imprisonment and/or a fine of up to £5000. Because the Malicious Communications Offence is more wide ranging than the Telecommunications offence it is more likely to be used by the Police than the Telecommunications Act offence.
In most cases involving malicious communications or cyberstalking however there will be more than one offensive or threatening letter or telephone call and therefore the police will often choose to charge the offender with an offence contrary to either Section 2 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 also punishable with up to six months imprisonment. Part of the reason for using this charge is that when someone is convicted of an offence under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 the court can make a Restraining Order preventing them from contacting their victim again. Breach of a Restraining Order is punishable with up to Five years imprisonment. A Restraining Order cannot be imposed for a conviction under the Malicious Communications or Telecommunications Acts.
If the e-mails, cyberstalking etc. causes the victim to fear that violence will be used against them then the police can choose to charge the offender with an offence contrary to Section 4 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 which is punishable with up to five years imprisonment and also allows the court to make a Restraining Order.
If the e-mails, cyberstalking etc. is racialist in nature or motivated by religious hostility then charges could be brought of Racially or Religiously Aggravated Harassment contrary to sections 32(1)(a) or 32(1)(b) of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 . If convicted offenders could face up to 7 years imprisonment.
The fact that an offensive telephone call, letter e-mail etc. may be received in the course of work and have been sent by a work colleague or manager does not justify the message or prevent it being an offence. Offensive messages sent within the workplace can still constitute criminal offences. In addition they may justify a claim for constructive dismissal and compensation under employment law.
In many situations the recipient of malicious messages knows who the sender is. It may be a former partner or a relative which may mean that the victim is reluctant to involve the police. In those circumstances the victim could consider taking out an Injunction under Section 3 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. However we would always advise informing the police especially if the messages are in any way threatening. Even if the police decide not to prosecute they may give the offender a formal warning which could be used in evidence if they repeated their behaviour in future.
In addition to criminal prosecutions victims of harassment can sue the offender under Section 3 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 for damages arising out of the anxiety caused by the Harassment and any financial loss it caused.
There is often a lot of confusion as to the legal position where either the sender or the recipient of an offensive communication is outside the jurisdiction of English law. The Internet in particular is often assumed to be completely outside of any legal control. That is not the case though the legal position is not as clear as it could be.
In general terms provided the offensive message was either sent from within England and Wales or was received within England and Wales then an offence has been committed which the police and the courts in England and Wales can deal with.
Where the offender has sent the message from outside England and Wales the Police will usually inform their foreign counterparts. It will frequently be the case that the offender has also broken the law in his own jurisdiction and will be dealt with by the authorities in that jurisdiction.
Similarly if someone in England and Wales is harassing someone abroad by means of letters e-mails etc. and the Police in England and Wales are informed of this then the offender could be arrested for criminal harassment and prosecuted regardless of the fact the victim was abroad.
This section has been prepared by Neil Addison, a Barrister and member of the WiredPatrol Advisory Board in the UK. More information on the law relating to cyberstalking and other forms of Stalking and Harassment can be found on Neil's Web site www.harassment-law.co.uk.
US Federal Laws
US Federal Laws against stalking have to date been of little help to stalking victims. The Federal Government appears to have left it very much to individual States to draft their own legislation, no doubt based on the grounds that stalking was usually a local problem conducted inside a community and therefore of no concern to National Government.
With the advent of the Internet however this lack of legislation has become a problem. In many cases of stalking online the stalker and the target live in different States or even different countries, which means the crimes being committed are Federal or International in nature.
The problem is that these cyberspace crimes have not yet been clearly defined and there is a lack of Federal legislation to address it.
As regards off-line stalking: in 1996 the US Federal Government passed The Interstate Stalking Punishment and Prevention Act of 1996 [ USC 18: 2261A ]. This made it a Federal crime to cross a State line with the intent to injure or harass another person. This law does little to help the Internet community of course as cyberstalking does not require the physical crossing of State lines. On the Internet this law can be found at nvc.org
USC 18: 41 - Extortion and Threats § 875 (c), is a little more useful in the case of threats made on the Internet, since it refers to "interstate communications". It states:
§ 875. Interstate communications
(c) Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another, shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
On the Internet this statute can be found in full at Cornell
The US Federal Government addressed interstate telephone harassment in U.S. Code Title 47/5/II section 223. (The Communications Act). This Act makes it a Federal offense to place obscene or harassing telephone calls within the United States, the District of Columbia, or interstate or foreign commerce, including a person who:
(a) (1)
(A) makes any comment, request, suggestion or proposal which is obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent;
(B) makes a telephone call, whether or not conversation ensues, without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person at the called number;
(C) makes or causes the telephone of another repeatedly or continuously to ring, with intent to harass any person at the called number; or
(D) makes repeated telephone calls, during which conversation ensues, solely to harass any person at the called number.
USC: 47: 5: II: 223 can be found on the World Wide Web at Cornell
THE US COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT OF 1996
While the Communications Act referred only to "interstate or foreign communication (harassment) by means of telephone", the amended version proposed in 1996 (called the Telecommunications Act) changed that text to refer instead to "interstate or foreign communication (harassment) by means of a telecommunications device." This change was brought about directly by the rise of harassment on the rapidly growing Internet, and the subsequent lack of legislation to deal with it.
Title V of this bill was named Obscene Or Harassing Use Of Telecommunications Facilities Under The Communications Act Of 1934. Section. 501 of this new bill named it the Communications Decency Act of 1996, and proposed to amend the Communications Act to make illegal the use of a telecommunications device (i.e. including Internet technology) that:
makes, creates, or solicits, and initiates the transmission of, any comment, request, suggestion, proposal, image, or other communication which is obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent, with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass another person
-or-
makes a telephone call or utilizes a telecommunications device, whether or not conversation or communication ensues, without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person at the called number or who receives the communications;
-or-
makes repeated telephone calls or repeatedly initiates communication with a telecommunications device, during which conversation or communication ensues, solely to harass any person at the called number or who receives the communication.
These US Federal anti cyberstalking laws were passed in 1996. While other parts of the CDA failed to satisfy the US Supreme Court and were struck down as infringing on Free Speech, the anti cyberstalking sections were not challenged.
The CDA text and associated documents can be found at The US House of Representatives Internet Law Library
Canadian Stalking Law
In Canada, stalking is defined under a general heading of Criminal Harassment.
The Canadian Criminal Code [ Section 264. Criminal Harassment (2) ] prohibits the following conduct:
(a) repeatedly following from place to place the other person or anyone known to them;
(b) repeatedly communicating with, either directly or indirectly, the other person or anyone known to them;
(c) besetting or watching the dwelling-house, or place where the other person, or anyone known to them, resides, works, carries on business or happens to be; or
(d) engaging in threatening conduct directed at the other person or any member of their family.
and punishes it with imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years. There is no mention in Canadian Law of electronic harassment or stalking, although it is possible to apply the statutes above to cyberspace.
You can read about Canada's stalking laws and the statutes themselves online.
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