Stalking

The conversational meaning of the word “stalking” has changed in recent years. Someone may playfully confess to “stalking” a romantic interest by scrolling through their social media posts. Despite the light-hearted way the term gets thrown around, when it comes to the law, stalking is a serious felony that can have significant consequences.

Talk to a criminal defense attorney if you are accused of stalking. A criminal defense lawyer can help you defend yourself against these serious allegations and protect your rights.

What Is Stalking?

Unlike most crimes, stalking isn’t so much one specific action as it is a collection of actions or events conducted with specific intent. Stalking can be described as:

• A series of deliberate actions and behaviors
• Directed at one person
• Actions that would cause a reasonable person to fear for their safety or the safety of others
• Done with the intent to cause distress

Stalking is sometimes a hard crime to identify. Some of the individual actions are legal, up to a certain point. Each state has its own variation of how it defines stalking, including adding requirements to define the crime. For example, some states require an accused stalker to make an actual threat before they can be charged.

Federal charges of stalking fall under the Office of Violence Against Women within the Department of Justice, but people of all genders can be victims of — or accused of — stalking.

Frequent, Unwanted Communication

Most stalking charges include excessive and unsolicited communications. Repeatedly calling, texting, emailing, or writing to another person with the intent to harass them and make them feel uncomfortable could lead to a stalking charge. Cyberstalking online is a newer form of stalking behavior.

Stalking usually requires a case-by-case analysis to determine when someone crosses the line between legal actions and criminal actions. If you were fighting with your significant other one night and repeatedly called their phone to get them to talk to you, that’s unlikely to qualify as a crime. However, if your partner ends the relationship and you keep making excessive attempts to communicate, your messages get more hostile, and you make or imply any threats, you might cross that line.

With a stalking claim, criminal behaviors can include:

• Contacting the victim after they’ve asked you to stop
• Creating fake social media profiles to evade privacy settings
• Contacting the person’s acquaintances to relay messages
• Sending unwelcome gifts
• Threatening immediate family members
• Going to places you expect the person to be, like their property or workplace
• Following the victim
• Using a deadly weapon to threaten the alleged victim

How Do You Prove Stalking?

Stalking is a type of domestic violence that can be difficult to prove. To constitute a crime, the stalking behaviors generally have to cause fear or emotional distress, and the perpetrator must have the intent to cause that distress.

Conduct

The prosecution must provide evidence of your alleged actions. This could include phone records showing the frequency of your calls, a text message or voicemail, emails, gifts, or letters. Prosecutors will also need to show your conduct surpassed societal norms to the point of harassment, which can be a subjective standard.

Harm

Even if you engaged in objectively unreasonable actions, your conduct needs to cause the victim of stalking injury or harm to qualify as a criminal offense. If you engage in stalker-like behaviors but the victim doesn’t feel threatened, distressed, or afraid, it may not be criminal stalking.

Reasonability

Using a reasonableness standard, a jury will consider what the average person would find offensive or a credible threat. Someone may feel afraid of another person’s conduct but the court could find that the person was being more sensitive or reactionary than a “reasonable person” would be.

Intent

Your own intent is a crucial element the prosecution will need to prove if you’re charged with stalking. Stalker actions that would make any reasonable person fear for their safety often won’t qualify as legal stalking unless your goal was to threaten a specific person. Someone who takes romantic comedies too literally may genuinely think that unwavering pursuit of another person is loving and desirable, even if their nonconsensual contact scares that person. Unless harassment was your goal, your actions may not qualify as stalking.

To prove intent, the prosecution must demonstrate that you knew the victim of stalking was afraid of you and wanted you to stop. They may use things you’ve said to the victim as proof you had intent, like a text message or voicemail making a threat or acknowledging that you’ve upset the other party and intend to antagonize them further.

How Do You Defend Against a Stalking Case?

Defending against a charge like this may begin with challenging the accusations about your conduct. If they report stalking to police, law enforcement will usually tell a victim to document all interactions, including pictures of you following them, and to save and print every electronic communication.

If your accuser doesn’t have these kinds of records, your criminal defense attorney may be able to get the stalking case dismissed for a lack of evidence.

If police and prosecutors have ample evidence of your conduct, your criminal defense attorney will probably call the more subjective elements into question. Your lawyer can challenge whether the alleged victim was reasonably afraid, if any existing fear was reasonable, and if you had the intent to cause distress.

What Are the Criminal Penalties for Stalking?

Stalking penalties vary by state. Penalties can increase for repeated stalking offenses. Many first-time offenders are charged with a misdemeanor. Common punishments for misdemeanor stalking include fines of up to $1,000, up to one year in jail, and an order of protection against contacting the alleged victim.

Aggravating factors may upgrade the charge to felony stalking, including stalking in violation of a restraining order, stalking the same victim after a previous domestic violence conviction, or threatening serious acts of violence. A felony conviction could carry higher fines and jail time up to 10 years.

Do I Need a Criminal Defense Lawyer?

When convictions can carry serious penalties, a strong defense is vital, and since this area of law can get quite murky, experienced defense attorneys can make a big difference in your case. Criminal defense lawyers can help you assess the claims against you, bargain for more lenient charges, lift a restraining order, and challenge the facts and laws that apply to your situation.

Many lawyers offer free consultations so you can weigh your options before you commit to a plan. Even if you don’t end up hiring that lawyer, this will allow you to share important information about your case. The lawyer is bound by law to keep that information confidential, except for very few circumstances. So whether you’re charged with a misdemeanor or felony crime, working with someone who knows the law could increase your chances of a better outcome.