How to file harassment charges on someone in a different state
What counts as harassment and stalking? [Criminal law explainer]
Timecodes:
what counts as harassment and stalking
i'm barrister daniel barnett and i'm
going to be explaining to you what the
criminal definitions of harassment and
stalking are
this is different from the colloquial
definitions it's different from the
definition of harassment
in employment law and some other areas
of law we are dealing specifically with
the criminal
law surrounding the offences of
harassment and stalking
the words harassment and stalking are
often used by people to describe what
colloquially is known as creepy or
slightly disturbing behavior
but the criminal law has a very precise
definition of both harassment
and stalking the definitions are
slightly less straightforward than what
we understand in ordinary conversation
so when could something that somebody
might call harassment
turn into something that you could be
arrested for
and charged with a criminal offence for
doing just because somebody says they
feel harassed by you doesn't mean you've
committed a criminal offence and doesn't
mean you've
harassed them in law the definition is
very specific and it can be found at
sections one
and one a of the protection from
harassment act 1997.
the protection from harassment act says
a person must not pursue a course of
conduct which amounts to harassment of
another
and which he knows or ought to know
amounts to harassment of the other
it goes on to say at section 1a a person
must not pursue a course of conduct
which involves
harassment of two or more persons and
which he knows or ought to know involves
harassment of those
persons and by which he intends to
persuade any person
not to do something that he is entitled
or required to do
or to do something that he's not under
any obligation to do
right so that's all a bit headache
inducing so let's try to break that down
into its constituent parts first of all
harassment has to be
a course of conduct now that means
not one episode of harassment but at
least two they've got to be at least
two things that amount to harassment for
it to become a
course of conduct rather than an episode
of conduct
so a single episode of harassment no
matter how bad
can't without more amount to a criminal
offence of course with more
for example with threats of physical
violence or indeed actual physical
violence
it can be a separate criminal offence
but it won't be the offence of
harassment
now just because two or more things have
happened doesn't mean it's part of a
course of conduct
the prosecution has to prove they're
connected in some way so how closely
related were they in time are they part
of a series of actions designed to
achieve a particular aim
on the part of the harasser or
calculated to change the behavior of the
person being harassed
the court will look at how closely
connected they all are to decide whether
it amounts to a course
of conduct conduct can mean pretty much
anything it can mean
words actions texts emails whatsapp
messages
it's a very very wide word
so if i kept phoning you in the middle
of the night that's much more likely
because of the proximity in time
to amount to a course of conduct than if
i phoned you once every three months
over the course of a couple of years
that would be unlikely to amount to a
course of conduct because it doesn't
have sufficient regularity about it
the behavior has to amount to the
harassment of another just because
somebody
feels harassed doesn't necessarily mean
it will amount to the harassment of
another a magistrate or judge
will decide whether it is sufficiently
serious to amount to harassment
and they look at the way that a
reasonable person would
view the situation just because you
didn't intend it to amount to a
harassment
doesn't mean that it's not at law
harassment just because the recipient
perceived it as harassment doesn't mean
that it is in fact harassment
what a magistrate will do is look at
what a reasonable person
which in the real world means what
magistrate thinks they'll look at what a
reasonable person thinks
would a reasonable person think that the
course of conduct you embarked on
amounts to harassment
and if so you're potentially guilty of
the offense if the other elements
are made out and likewise with the
requirement that the
perpetrator the person charged with the
offence has to know or ought to know
that their behavior amounts to
harassment so the mere fact you didn't
think it amount to harassment
isn't going to be a defense if a
magistrate thinks you
ought to have known it amounted to
harassment again a magistrate will look
at the point of view
of a reasonable person on the street
with the reasonable
objective person thinks that what you're
doing amounts to harassment and if the
answer to that is yes
then that element of the criminal
offence is ticked off
harassment can usually only be tried in
a magistrates court and it carries a
maximum sentence of an unlimited fine or
six months imprisonment
that's harassment stalking is something
slightly different slightly more serious
it's essentially the offense of
harassment but with the stalking
bit added to it the protection from
harassment act 1997 section 2a
says a person is guilty of an offence if
the person
pursues a course of conduct in breach of
section 1-1
that's harassment and the course of
conduct amounts
to stalking now the word stalking brings
to mind images of following somebody
around
uh smoking a cigarette standing outside
their house and looking up at their
backlit window
but it can actually cover things that
are a lot wider than that as well as
following someone around as well as
phoning somebody up it can also cover
following them around on social media
it can cover posting things in their
name pretending to be them
it can be posting things about them it
can be sending them tweets and texts and
messages
so the word stalking can cover a huge
variety of behavior
it's not just what you imagine to be
stalking from
1950s b-roll movies stalking can only be
tried in a magistrate's court and again
it carries an unlimited fine as a
maximum or a maximum of six
months in prison if you found this
explainer guide useful thank you so much
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barrister daniel barnett
bye
[Music]
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