Stalkers and their Victims

Introduction

The constellation of acts that constitute stalking, when considered individually, often may seem innocuous to the uninvolved observer and their threatening nature may be far from immediately apparent. When repeated over time, however, the actions of the stalker all too often take on an altogether more sinister import for the object of these unwanted attentions. Although ‘stalking’ is a new word, the behaviour itself is not new to the criminal justice system, having been dealt with in various ways by the courts since at least the eighteenth century. The recent media fascination with the stalking of high-profile victims, and cases where the pursuit of former intimate partners has culminated in violence, highlighted problems with existing legal responses. Largely as a result of agitation in the media, stalking has come to be regarded as both new and increasingly prevalent, requiring immediate political and legislative responses. Although in fact not new and possibly not even increasing in frequency, it is true that existing criminal, civil and common laws, despite being available to prosecute stalking-related conduct, have proved largely insufficient either to deter the perpetrator of stalking or to protect the victim. The laws that existed in most jurisdictions prior to 1990 applied to single illegal acts, rather than taking into consideration the repetition of an act, which may change not just its gravity but its very nature.