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Stalking
01-25-2005 11:46 am
 What Is Stalking?
Stalking is a pattern of repeated, unwanted attention, harassment and contact. It is a pattern of conduct that can include:
- Following the victim
- Appearing at the victim's home or place of work
- Making unwanted and frightening contact with the victim through phone, mail and/or email
- Harassing the victim through the Internet
- Making threats to harm the victim, the victim's children, relatives, friends or pets
- Sending the victim unwanted gifts
- Intimidating the victim
- Vandalizing the victim's property
- Securing personal information about the victim by accessing public records, hiring private investigators, using Internet search services, contacting friends, family, work or neighbors, or going through the victim's garbage.
Cyber Stalking is the use of the Internet, e-mail or other telecommunications technology to harass or stalk another person. Read the brochure "Protect Yourself from Technology Abuse" from the Ohio Domestic Violence Network for information on how you can protect yourself from this type of stalking.
Stalking is a Crime
Menacing by stalking is the act of a person who knowingly engages in a pattern of conduct that causes you to believe that the offender (stalker) will cause you physical harm or causes mental distress to you.
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"Pattern of Conduct" means two or more actions or incidents occur in a short period of time
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"Mental Distress" means any mental illness or condition that would normally require counseling. However, counseling is NOT required to obtain legal remedies.
If a person follows, pursues, or harasses you in a threatening manner on more than one occasion, this person may be guilty of stalking under Ohio law. Contact local law enforcement to report all stalking incidents.
Protection Orders through Criminal Court
- You can ask for a criminal protection order if someone is stalking you and is charged with one of the following crimes: menacing by stalking, aggravated menacing, menacing, aggravated trespass, assault, aggravated assault or felonious assault.
- This is a temporary order which only lasts during the criminal case
- It can order the stalker not to contact you in any way, and to stay away from you, your home, workplace, and your children's school or day care
- When the stalker is a family or household member, the order will be called a Temporary Protection Order (TPO)
- When the stalker is not a family or household member, it will be calked a Stalking Protection Order.
Who is a "family or household member"?
- A relative by blood or marriage who you live with now or have lived with in the past
- A partner you live with now or have lived with within the past 5 years (this includes same-sex couples)
- Any person you were married to
- Any person you had a child with
Protection Orders through Civil Court
- If someone is engaging in behaviors that may be considered stalking, whether or not criminal charges are filed, you may ask the court for a civil protection order.
- If the stalker is a family or household member, then you would request a Civil Protection Order (CPO)
- When the stalker is not a family or household member, it will be called a Stalking Protection Order
- This order can last up to five years
- It can order the stalking not to contact you in any way, and to stay away from you, your home, workplace and your children's school or day care
Domestic Violence and Stalking
Three out of five female stalking victims are stalked by a current or former intimate partner. Some women find that when they try to end a relationship, their former partner refuses to leave them alone. Many women who experience abuse in a relationship find that the abuse continues after they try to end the relationship. Abusive partners often begin to monitor and control their former partners by stalking them when they feel the relationship is slipping away.
For this reason, ending an abusive relationship can be difficult and dangerous. It is important to contact your local domestic violence program or victim assistance office for support during this time.
Planning for Your Safety
Even if you choose to seek help from the courts, planning for your safety should be an on-going process. Here are suggestions that may help to improve your safety:
- Never contact your stalker or try to reason with this person
- Document all stalking incidents or actions in a journal. Keep the journal in a safe place. Keep all evidence of the stalking, including answering machine tapes and notes/letters. Ask any witnesses to provide a written statement about what they observed, along with their contact information.
- Safeguard your social security number. If the stalker knows your social security number, consider applying to have it changed.
- Protect personal information by keeping as much as possible out of public records.
- Open a post office box a fair distance from your home and use it as your new address for all mail as your address in all transactions
- Ask utility companies to require a password for anyone to access your account.
- Never give out personal information to anyone who does not have a need for it
- Use a different schedule and route of travel each day
- Know the locations of police departments, fire stations, or busy shopping centers in the areas you will be in each day.
- Have an answering machine pick up all your calls.
Remember, it is not your fault. Stalking is violent, abusive, anti-social behavior that is not acceptable under any circumstance.
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