Vermont already has a law against stalking. But advocates say it isn’t necessarily doing victims any good, and lawmakers are now considering legislation that would broaden the definition of the crime, and expand the number of people who can seek protection from alleged perpetrators.
On any given year, about 700 people will file court orders in Vermont seeking protection from someone they say has either stalked or sexually abused them. Of those, however, only about a quarter are granted.
“We have heard from a number of victims that they have tried numerous times to get civil protection orders against stalkers, and they have not been able to,” says Auburn Watersong, the associate director of public policy at the Vermont Network Against Sexual and Domestic Violence. “The question that exists for us is, why are there so many denials?”
Watersong says the problem lies within the statute designed to protect people from their alleged stalkers. The existing law is vague, according to domestic violence advocates, and only prohibits overt threats to a person’s safety.
“And we wanted to be really clear that stalking is a crime that isn’t necessarily as overt as it is repetitive and creating fear, and that there are many actions that amount to threatening behavior,” Watersong says.
If the stalking law is going to serve the victims it aims to protect, then Watersong says it needs to criminalize the tactics that many stalkers employ. And she says that means making illegal a course of conduct that would make a reasonable person fear for their safety, even if the individual acts involved aren’t criminal.
"Stalking is a crime that isn't necessary as overt as it is repetitive and creating fear and that there are many actions that amount to threatening behavior." — Auburn Watersong, associate director of public policy at the Vermont Network Against Sexual and Domestic Violence
“When a stalker leaves a flower on their victim’s doorstep, that could be interpreted as a message that the stalker now knows where the victim lives,” Watersong says.
Watersong says the law also should also encompass social media and other technological platforms an alleged stalker might use to intimidate someone. Lawmakers are also working on a bill that would allow 16 and 17 year olds to file protective orders against stalking – under current law, the person filing the complaint has to be at least 18.
Brian Grearson, the chief superior court judge for the state of Vermont, says the proposed changes to the stalking law are substantial.
“The stalking statute is designed to address issues where someone has a reasonable fear of physical harm,” Grearson says. “This is changing it from a physical harm to emotional distress.”
Grearson says the more expansive definition could lead to an influx of complaints into a court system already struggling to handle caseloads.
“If the criteria is as a result of that kind of behavior – someone feels that they’ve been distressed, emotionally distressed – those are the kinds of cases that are coming in that don’t come in now,” Grearson says. “And the question is, should the protection go that far?”
Moretown Rep. Maxine Grad is the Democratic chairwoman of the House Judiciary Committee. Grad says shortcomings in the existing stalking law need to be fixed, “because this is really a very serious crime that really is threatening people’s safety, lives, jobs.”
And Grad says she thinks her committee will be able to find language that protects victims without giving rise to frivolous claims based on offensive Facebook posts or Twitter rants.
