What is the act of stalking?
: the act or crime of willfully and repeatedly following or harassing another person in circumstances that would cause a reasonable person to fear injury or death especially because of express or implied threats broadly : a crime of engaging in a course of conduct directed at a person that serves no legitimate purpose …
What is the anti stalking law?
California Penal Code [CPC] §646.9(a) – Stalking – California’s Stalking law makes it illegal to follow, or harass, and threaten another person. In order to violate the statute, the threat must put the alleged victim in reasonable fear for his or her safety.
What is harassment under the Harassment Act?
Harassment is a persistent and deliberate course of unacceptable and oppressive conduct, targeted at another person, which is calculated to and does cause that person alarm, fear or distress.
What is the criminal definition of stalking?
Stalking is conservatively defined as “a course of conduct directed at a specific person that involves repeated (two or more occasions) visual or physical proximity, nonconsensual communication, or verbal, written, or implied threats, or a combination thereof, that would cause a reasonable person fear.” [1] Stalking …
What constitutes the offense of stalking?
The crime of stalking can be simply described as the unwanted pursuit of another person. Examples of this type of behavior includes following a person, appearing at a person’s home or place of business, making harassing phone calls, leaving written messages or objects, or vandalizing a person’s property.
What does the Protection from Harassment Act do?
Protection from Harassment Act, 2011 (Act 17 of 2011) The Act aims to provide a remedy in the form of a protection which would prohibit aperson from harassing another person. If the harasser breaches a protection order he or she commits an offence which is punishable with a fine or a period of imprisonment.
What is a stalking?
Stalking is defined as a pattern of unwanted behavior, directed at a specific person, which causes that person to change their routine or feel afraid, nervous or in danger. Examples of stalking behaviors: Repeated, unwanted phone calls, texts, messages, etc. that may or may not be threatening.
Which of the following accurately describes stalking?
Stalking is behavior wherein an individual willfully and repeatedly engages in a knowing course of harassing conduct directed at another person, which reasonably and seriously alarms, torments, or terrorizes that person. Stalking involves one person’s obsessive behavior toward another person.
What is second degree stalking?
(1) A person commits the crime of stalking in the second degree if the person knowingly and maliciously: (a) Engages in a course of conduct that seriously alarms, annoys or harasses the victim and is such as would cause a reasonable person substantial emotional distress; or.
When did stalking and harassment become an offence?
Prosecutors should note that stalking and harassment of another or others can include a range of offences such as those under: the Protection from Harassment Act 1997; the Offences Against the Person Act 1861; the Sexual Offences Act 2003; and the Malicious Communications Act 1988.
What was the protection from Harassment Act of 1997?
Section 1 of the 1997 Act states that a person must not pursue a course of conduct which “amounts to harassment of another” and which “he knows or ought to know” amounts to such harassment. Such conduct could lead to a criminal penalty (under section 2).
When is stalking considered as a specific behaviour?
Stalking as a specific behaviour as opposed to harassment more generally. Closed the lacuna when a course of conduct fell short of causing a victim to feel fear of violence but nevertheless caused a victim serious alarm or distress. (In this circumstance the police and prosecutors could only consider a section 2 summary offence).
Which is part of the protection of Freedoms Act covers stalking?
Section 2A and 4A (PHA 1997) Stalking offences which are also racially and religiously aggravated are covered under Part 11 of Schedule 9 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.