Stalking and persecutory acts. How to recognize them? What are the tools that allow us to investigate and prove the act itself? Dr. Diego DI BARI, investigator in Lucca can help you answer these and many other questions.
If you are bothered by unwelcome behaviors, such as phone calls, SMS, sending flowers or gifts, you can contact us to check if there are the conditions to proceed with a complaint for persecutory acts.
Stalking occurs when a person performs abnormal behaviors, annoying towards another person, such as frequent phone calls, stalking, insistent contact searches, threats of violence etc.
It is also referred to as "Nagging Harassment Syndrome", it causes states of anxiety, fear for one's own safety. Dr. Diego DI BARI will carry out investigations to protect you and protect you from stalking. Investigator in Lucca will carry out research to identify and ascertain intrusive and persecutory behaviors with the aim of prosecute the person accused of stalking.
Contact for an appointment: cell. +39 331 989 4606
MORE INFORMATION ON STALKING
WHAT IS ITOur penal code provides for the crime of stalking (from the English term “to stalk” = to do the post, hunt down the prey); with it we mean all persecutory behaviors (eg: invasive behaviors, of intrusion, with the pretense of control, constantly threatening the victim with phone calls, messages, stalking, obsessive stalking) towards a person and that interfere in the private life of the same.
- what is;
- protection of women ( femicide );
- stalking actions;
- typical behaviors and type of stalker;
- features;
- how to proceed against the stalker.
Stalking has become a crime to protect subjects who suffer a series of attitudes and behaviors on the part of an individual (so-called stalker) which manifest themselves in persecutory acts and cause a state of anxiety and fear, thereby compromising the normal conduct of daily life.
PROTECTION OF WOMEN (FEMINICIDE)
Recently, new measures have been introduced to combat violence that provide for greater protection of women, but also prevention measures.
Three new types of CDs have been introduced. aggravating (i.e. specific circumstances in the commission of the fact and affecting the determination of the sentence):
- when the fact is committed to the detriment of the spouse, even divorced or separated or of the partner even if not cohabiting;
- for those who commit mistreatment, sexual violence and stalking of pregnant women;
- for violence committed in the presence of minors under 18.
THE MAIN NEWS IN RELATION TO THE THEME OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ARE:
the emotional relationship is the new parameter on the basis of which to draw aggravating and protective measures, noting the relationship between two people from a criminal point of view regardless of cohabitation or marital bond; the complaint (ie the reporting of the facts) in the crime of stalking becomes irrevocable if there are repeated serious threats, for example with weapons. However, it remains revocable in other cases, but remission can only be made in court before the judicial authority in order to ensure the victim's free determination; in case of beatings or injuries, the questore can admonish the responsible adding also the suspension of the driving license by the prefect. Anonymous reports are not allowed, but the confidentiality of the informant's personal details is guaranteed; in the event of a flagrant crime (ie the case of someone caught committing a crime), arrest is also mandatory in the case of family mistreatment and stalking; apart from compulsory arrest, the judicial police, if authorized by the public prosecutor and if there is the flagrant nature of serious crimes (including serious injuries, aggravated threats and violence), can apply the measure of urgent removal from family home and the prohibition of approaching the places frequented by the injured person; whoever is removed from the family home can be controlled through electronic tools (electronic bracelet but also wiretapping); to protect the injured person, there is a series of information obligations regarding the right to appoint a lawyer and everything related to the application of any precautionary measures.
The stalking conduct and persecutory acts (ie the behavior punished by the law) is constituted by the repetition of the threats or harassment put in place by the stalker. The law intended to protect individual safety in the event that such threats endanger the psycho-physical integrity of the injured party. There must be no damage to health in terms of biological damage, but it is sufficient that there is an alteration of the normal psycho-physical balance of the injured person even without leading to a real pathology.
According to the judges, the crime of persecutory acts (or stalking), provided for by art. 612 bis of the Criminal Code, is characterized by alternative behaviors and inhomogeneous events, each of which suitable for integrating it, which must be subject to a rigorous and timely assessment by the judge in relation to the seriousness of the behaviors and their suitability to represent a threat, while the "severe state of anxiety or fear" must be identified in an unpleasant emotional condition, accompanied by a sense of oppression and a notable decrease in the powers of control.
In fact, for the perpetration of the crime, it is necessary to demonstrate the effect that the aggressor's conduct has had on the victim, which can be of three types, each alternative:
- a procured "persistent and severe state of anxiety and fear";
- an engendered "well-founded fear for the safety of oneself or of a close relative or of a person linked to him by an emotional relationship";
- an alteration of one's lifestyle.
TYPICAL BEHAVIOR AND TYPE OF STALKER
Many studies have been developed on the phenomenon of stalking and persecutory acts, which have distinguished two categories through which it can be implemented:
- intrusive and persecutory communications that are implemented with the help of tools such as telephone, letters, text messages, e-mails or even graffiti and murals;
- contacts that can be implemented both through control behaviors (shadowing) and through direct confrontation (visits to the home or workplace)
The two types are generally found in mixed form and, more often than not, the first is followed by the second.
In the face of these categories, types of stalkers have been identified based on the needs that push these subjects to carry out acts of this type:
- the resentful: one who is driven by the desire to take revenge for a damage or wrong that he believes he has suffered and, for this reason, seeks revenge;
- the needy of affection: is the molester motivated by the search for attention and a relationship that can involve both friendship and love and whose refusal on the other hand is denied and reinterpreted;
- the incompetent suitor who behaves oppressively and explicitly and when he fails to achieve the desired results he also becomes aggressive;
- in general this type is less resistant over time but tends to change the person to be harassed;
- the rejected: the one who becomes persecutor following a refusal. generally it is an ex who aims to re-establish the relationship or to take revenge for the abandonment;
- the predator: this is the harasser who aspires to have sexual intercourse with a victim by stalking, chasing and scaring her. Fear, in fact, excites this type of stalker who feels a sense of power in organizing the assault.
The behavior of stalking (and persecutory acts) is characterized by three elements that distinguish it from similar behaviors:
the stalker acts towards a person who is a victim because he is linked to him by an emotional relationship based on a relationship that can be real, but also only imagined;
stalking manifests itself in a series of behaviors based on communication and / or contact and characterized by repetition, insistence and intrusiveness;
the psychological pressure linked to the stalker's behavior creates in the victim a state of alertness, emergency and psychological stress, moods that can be perceived as intrusive, unpleasant and annoying and linked to feelings such as anguish, worry and fear for your own safety.
Differences from threats and harassment
Stalking punishes those who "threaten or harass someone with repeated conduct": repetition is an essential requirement.
What characterizes the crime in question with respect to threats and harassment is constituted by:
reiteration of the conduct;
the production of a serious and persistent state of anxiety or fear or of a well-founded fear for the safety of oneself or of a close relative or of a person linked to him by an emotional relationship or an unwanted alteration of one's life habits .
In order for the crime of stalking to occur, the stalker must have the will and conscience to put in place (implement voluntarily) every single act and the conduct that derives from the set of behaviors. In other words, the stalker represents himself and wants the behaviors he puts in place.
There is no need for a particular animus, nor for it to represent the serious and persistent state of anxiety, or the change in the habits of the victim's daily life.
HOW CAN YOU PROCEED AGAINST THE STALKER
The crime of stalking is punished upon complaint (ie the reporting of the facts) of the offended person, with a deadline for the filing of the complaint of 6 months.
However, it can proceed ex officio (ie the judicial authority takes action to prosecute the guilty party), in the following cases: