Neil Sands
Lawmakers will be handing stalkers a “get out of jail free card” if planned legislation is not tightened, a leading women’s advocacy group has warned.
A parliamentary select committee is examining the Crimes Legislation (Stalking and Harassment) Amendment Bill, which makes stalking a specific criminal offence carrying a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment.
While welcoming the “desperately needed” move, Deborah Mackenzie of The Backbone Collective said changes were needed to ensure the legislation properly protects women and children from violence.
Mackenzie said the threshold for intervention under the new legislation should be lowered to two acts of stalking, rather than proposed three, and a requirement that the acts must take place within a 12-month period should be removed.
“We don’t think that victim survivors should have to endure multiple abusive incidents within a set time period to qualify for protection,” she said.
“We hope the committee will see that by acting earlier to interrupt stalking, this will lessen the impact on victim survivors and children and provide an earlier opportunity to hold the perpetrator to account and provide rehabilitation.”
‘No reasonable excuse’
Mackenzie said The Backbone Collective also objected to a requirement that police notify alleged perpetrators that their behaviour was likely to cause fear and could amount to a criminal offence if repeated.
The notification is designed to demonstrate that if there are any further acts of stalking, then the perpetrator knew about the impact of his or her behaviour on the victim.
Mackenzie said it provided an unnecessary hurdle for prosecutors.
“Police and prosecutors should not have to prove that stalkers have knowledge about the likely effect of their stalking. This is an unreasonably high bar,” she said.
“It provides stalkers with a get-out-of-jail-free card – one that we are convinced will be used to great effect.”
In addition, she said police should not issue notifications without consent from victims, who needed to be consulted throughout the process.
Mackenzie was also concerned that the legislation allows accused stalkers to use the defence that they engaged in their behaviour “with a reasonable excuse”, arguing the term reasonable is too subjective and should be dropped.
“Abusers rely on manipulation to present a different picture to the world than the one their victim is telling,” she said.
“Women tell Backbone that their ex-partners lie about the abuse, make up allegations about the victim and charm people around them to present themselves as the victim rather than the perpetrator.
“These tactics are often successful in ensuring that they’re not held to account in any way… There is no reasonable excuse for stalking and perpetrators will take advantage of this defence if it is available.”
Toxic fans
The charitable trust Soundcheck Aotearoa, which campaigns for a safer music industry, said stalking affected all businesses that deal with the public.
“A dedicated criminal law to address stalking and harassment is long overdue, not just for our music industry, but for all public-facing industries,” Soundcheck manager Anna Loveys said.
“We do not accept that stalking and harassment is part of the job. This harmful belief in the public’s consciousness has undermined the safety of artists, their whanau and professional teams for generations.
“It has affected people we know and allowed this kind of harm to be trivialised.
“I hear the same belief permeate other public-facing industries like central and local government, media, retail and the screen sector, for example.”
Loveys said toxic fan behaviours had intensified in the social media age, when people felt they were entitled to artists’ personal lives, and she hoped the stalking bill would lead to a culture change.
The proposed law lists a series of behaviours that can amount to stalking, including damaging a person’s reputation, recording or tracking them, loitering and damaging their property, including pets.
To account for modern technology, it says stalking can take place via any means, including spyware, drones or artificial intelligence.
The Justice Select Committee is due to present its report on the bill by June 10.
0 Comments