The Protection from Harassment Act is intended to deal with the civil offence (i.e. interference with the personal rights of the victim) covered by tort law. Victims of criminal harassment can take legal action to obtain a prohibition against an alleged stalker or a non-harassment order, the violation of which is a criminal offence. [ref. needed] Cyberstalking is the use of computers or other electronic technologies to facilitate harassment. In Davis (2001), Lucks identified a distinct category of stalkers who prefer to commit crimes against their victims electronically and online. [31] Among students, Ménard and Pincus found that men who had high scores of sexual abuse and narcissistic vulnerability as children were more likely to become bullies. Of the women who participated in their study, 9% were cyberstalkers, while only 4% were overt stalkers. In addition, male participants showed the opposite, 16% were open stalkers and 11% were cyberstalkers.
Both alcohol and physical violence played a role in predicting women`s cyberstalking, and among men, worried attachment «significantly predicted cyberbullying.» [32] Prior to 1997, there was no specific offence of criminal harassment in England and Wales, but in Scotland incidents could be dealt with under existing law, with life imprisonment possible for the worst offences. The 2002 National Academy of Victims defines another form of harassment: vengeful/terrorist stalker. Both the revenge stalker and the terrorist stalker (the latter sometimes referred to as a political stalker), unlike some of the types of stalkers mentioned above, do not seek a personal relationship with their victims, but force them to send a certain reaction. While the motive of the vengeful harasser is to be «balanced» with the other person who he or she believes has harmed him or her (e.g., an employee who believes he or she will be fired from a job by a supervisor without justification), the political harasser intends to carry out a political agenda by also using threats and intimidation. compel the target to abstain from or engage in a particular activity, without regard to the consent of the victim. For example, most prosecutions in this category of criminal harassment targeted anti-abortion opponents who hunt down doctors to prevent abortions from being performed. [28] Violence Against Women Act of 2005 amending a U.S. law, 108 Stat. 1902 et seq., defined as harassment:[84] Anyone who knowingly, maliciously and repeatedly follows or harasses another person and makes a credible threat with the intent to cause him or her to have a well-founded fear for his or her safety or that of his or her immediate family is guilty of the crime of stalking. People who are characterized as stalkers may be accused of having a misconception that another person loves them (erotomania) or that they need to be saved.
[15] Criminal harassment can consist of an accumulation of a series of actions that may be legal in themselves, such as making phone calls, sending gifts or sending emails. [17] According to a special report by the U.S. Department of Justice,[23] a significant number of people who report incidents of criminal harassment report being stalked by more than one person, with 18.2% reporting being stalked by two people and 13.1% by three or more people. The report did not divide these cases into the number of victims who claimed to have been prosecuted by several individuals and by individuals acting jointly. A question asked of respondents who reported three or more stalkers among survey staff about whether the harassment was related to co-workers, gang members, fraternities, sororities, etc., had no answer in the survey results published by DOJ. Data in this report were obtained through the 2006 Supplementary Victimization Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau on behalf of the Department of Justice. [24] In 2013, the Indian Parliament made amendments to the Indian Penal Code and introduced criminal harassment as a criminal offence. [62] Criminal harassment has been defined as a man who follows or contacts a woman, even if the woman clearly indicates that she is not interested, or that she uses the Internet or electronic communications. A man who commits the offence of criminal harassment would be liable to imprisonment for up to three years for the first offence and a fine and imprisonment of up to five years and a fine for each subsequent conviction. A review of the international research literature on harassment up to 2003. Reviews topics such as: the definition of harassment, its nature and prevalence, its consequences, the characteristics of victims and perpetrators, and the prevention of harassment.
Criminal harassment is unwanted and/or repeated surveillance of another person by one person or group. [1] Harassing behaviours are related to harassment and bullying and may include personal monitoring or supervision of the victim. The term stalking is used with different definitions in psychiatry and psychology, as well as in some jurisdictions as a term for a crime. [2] [3] Several cases of the California Court of Appeals have defined the wording of the harassment law. In Menschen v. Heilman (1994), the Court defined the term «repeatedly» as «on more than one occasion». In this case, «harassment» was defined as «multiple acts over a period of time, however short, that proves the continuity of the objective». The term «harassment» is defined in paragraph 646.9(e) of the Criminal Code as «a deliberate and intentional conduct directed by a particular person that seriously alarms, annoys, torments or terrorizes the person and that serves no legitimate purpose. This behavior must be such that a reasonable person is under significant emotional stress and must in fact cause significant emotional stress to that person.
In 1996, Congress passed an anti-harassment bill as part of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Under this law, it is a federal crime to cross state borders to prosecute or harass a person if the conduct causes fear of serious bodily harm or death to the victim of harassment or immediate family members. Prosecuting or harassing military or U.S. territory, including Indian lands, is a federal crime (18 U.S.C. § 2261A). Crossing state borders or entering or leaving Indian land in violation of a qualifying protection order (18 U.S.C. § 2262) is also a federal crime. In 2000, after the assassination of Shiori Ino, Japan enacted a national law to combat this behavior.
[67] Criminal harassment can be considered «disturbing the peace of another`s lives» and is prohibited after minor offences.