It is a crime associated with following a person around from home to work and anywhere else the person goes to make them feel that they are being watched.
It can also involve stealing a person's private information in an attempt to harass them.
Stalking is a crime of psychological abuse where the person is made to feel that they are watched all the time.
Often there is little knowledge of how the crime is perpetrated so the person is denied even the right to interact freely with their family.
There is also usually an associated threat that some harm will imminently occur to the person.
Under the Crimes Act 1900 the crime of stalking is defined as containing many other elements of abuse. http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/a/1900-40/current/pdf/1900-40.pdf
The Crimes Act assumes that stalking is committed by one person known to the victim but I have been stalked for nearly 9 years by people I don't even know.
In a survey from the United States it was estimated that about 3.4 million people over the age of 18 were stalked. The report identified 7 types of behaviours as related to stalking;
making unwanted phone calls
sending unwanted emails or letters
following or spying on the victim
showing up at places where the victim is going
waiting for the victim
leaving unwanted items for the victim to find
posting rumours about the victim on the internet or in a public place
the whole of the US Department of Justice report is available
During the almost 9 years that I have been stalked I have been subjected to 6 of the above 7 behaviours, I am yet to receive unwanted letters or emails.
Just as I did not know the guy who raped me neither do I know the people who are involved in stalking me.
The way I understand it, is that it is a network of people and that they will text each other if I leave a place so that someone else can then follow me.
The only other crime that I can associate it with is the gang rapes of women in Sydney. During these rapes a woman would be abducted by one person and then text messages sent to a network of other people who would converge in one place to rape her.See post "What's in a name?" 2009
Also possibly the rape of the school girl in Tuggeranong in the ACT. After this girl was raped there were other people invoved in harassing her and her family.See post "Responding" 2009
As I am being stalked then so is my family.
I cannot take my son to school nor bring him home without someone either being at the school or on the way there to indicate we are being followed.
When we go swimming, or to the beach or even to a park nearby there will be someone there to make sure I am aware that we are being followed and watched.
My son has been stalked all of his life because I was raped.
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