Stalking and harassment is difficult to define since it can
incorporate such a wide variety of behaviours and motives. There
are many forms of harassment ranging from unwanted attention from
somebody seeking a romantic relationship to violent predatory
behaviour.
The most common forms of harassment are:
- Unsolicited telephone calls
- Spying
- Unwanted home visits
- Spreading lies about the victim
- Threatening suicide
- Unsolicited letters/other written material
- Following
- Cyberstalking
- Turning up unannounced at a victim’s home or place of work
- Act of damage against the victim’s property
Other forms of stalking behaviour which are less common
include:
- Sexual assault
- Breaking into victim’s home
- Abusing victim’s pets
- Threatening to harm children
- Identity theft
Sometimes stalkers are not known to the victim, but in the vast
majority of cases, there will be some association - either casual
or intimate – between the victim and their stalker. In most cases,
the victim and their stalker will have been previously been in an
intimate relationship. This is the most dangerous type of stalking
situation.
The law
Since 1997, there has been a specific law on harassment, The
Protection from Harassment Act, which can be used in both the Civil
and Criminal Courts.
It makes it unlawful to ‘pursue a course of conduct which
amounts to harassment of another and which the defendant knows or
ought to know amounts to harassment of another’. The Act says that
conduct amounts to harassment if a reasonable person in possession
of the information would think that it amounted to harassment.
Stalking or harassing behaviour often breaks other laws too.
Punishments
Many harassment offences can be tried in a magistrates’ court
and are punishable by a maximum of six months imprisonment, a fine
up to £5,000 or both.
More serious offences, which can be tried in either magistrates’
or Crown courts, are punishable by up to five years imprisonment or
a fine up to £5,000 or both.
Courts can also impose a restraining order, which bans the
defendant from doing certain things for a certain period of time.
Since September 2009, courts have been able to make a restraining
order even if the defendant is found not guilty and regardless of
the offence for which they are being tried.