Stalking Awareness Month reveals scary issue

Stalking is invisible to you and me. To those being stalked, they are acutely aware it is a scheme to keep a message clear: “I am watching you.” The message may be: “I told you I would never let you go.” Or possibly the message is, “You will never get away from me.”

The dictionary definition is a simple one: pursue or approach stealthily, creep up on, trail, follow, shadow, track down, go after, hunt. Sounds like what clients at Domestic Violence Action Center and across the country experience on a regular basis.

Imagine the terror. The blinding fear of not knowing when you are being watched, or the ways you will be watched. What form the messages will be delivered. It may be by lurking presence, damage done to property, through cyber means, contact by others and, more subtly, the nuanced evidence the abuser has been in the proximity (We have heard stories about canned goods being rearranged in the cabinet or slippers lined up outside the front door).

Stalking is a distinctive form of criminal activity comprised of a series of actions that taken individually might constitute legal behavior. For example, sending flowers, writing love notes, and waiting for someone outside her place of work are actions that, on their own, are not criminal.

When these actions are coupled with an intent to instill fear or injury, however, they may constitute a pattern of behavior that is illegal. Though anti-stalking laws are gender neutral, most stalkers are men and most victims are women.

In Hawaii there are two laws that make stalking a crime. Stalking by harassment (established as a misdemeanor in 2009), and aggravated harassment by stalking (established as a felony in 2003).

Cyberstalking was included in the statute (2012) so that when a person uses a computer to repeatedly send electronic communications, including e-mail, he or she can be charged with a crime.

Federal law also prohibits stalking; the Interstate Stalking Act (18 U.S.C.A. § 2261A [1996]), makes it a criminal offense to travel across state lines to stalk another person. The Full Faith and Protection provisions of the violence against women act (18 U.S.C.A. § 2265–2266 [2000]), mandates nationwide enforcement of orders of protection, including harassment and stalking.

There is not always a desire to involve the criminal justice system, but if you are a victim of stalking and need law enforcement to help you to stop the crimes, it is imperative you have collected evidence.

The preservation of evidence is essential for use in prosecuting and convicting the stalker. It is suggested that the victim keep a diary of stalking and other crimes committed by the perpetrator. Witnesses to the behavior, photographs of injuries or damaged property and safekeeping of that property destroyed by the stalker, notes, texts, voicemails and medical records, would all be helpful for effective law enforcement intervention.

All 50 states have anti-stalking laws in recognition of the terrifying helplessness victims’ experience. Over 85 percent of stalking victims are stalked by someone they know; 46 percent of stalking victims experience at least one unwanted contact per week. Most, if not all, stalkers repeat this behavior with other partners. Hawaii specific data is unavailable.

Anecdotal reports compiled by the Domestic Violence Action Center will be shared this week to illustrate its power and terror. No fewer than 50 percent of the survivors we work with describe repeated stalking.

Nanci Kreidman is chief executive officer of Hawaii’s Domestic Violence Action Center.