Stalking: what it is and how to proceed

Stalking is not a homogeneous phenomenon, so it is not possible to reconstruct a perfect model of typical conduct, nor a typical profile of the so-called stalker.

In most cases the obsessive behaviour comes from men, usually the victim's partner or former partner, but the persecutor may also be a colleague, a friend, an acquaintance or a neighbour. The range of conduct that may be regarded as obsessive harassment or a persecutory act is rather varied. Beyond the specific methods that distinguish individual episodes of persecution, the offence is generally committed through a combination of several harassing acts: it may, for example, be committed by watching, following, waiting, and so on. Whatever the manner of its expression, it is essential that the agent's behaviour cause the victim "serious psychological distress" or give rise to "a justified fear for his or her own personal safety or that of a person close to him or her" or, in any event, significantly prejudice "his or her way of living": in other words, for persecutory conduct to be criminally relevant, the stalker's repeated acts must have a destabilising effect on the victim's serenity and psychological balance.

Stalking may be a warning sign of a much more serious consequence, namely the well-known phenomenon of femicide.

Article 612-bis of the Criminal Code, first paragraph, punishes the conduct of anyone who, by repeated conduct, threatens or harasses another person in such a way as to cause a lasting and serious state of anxiety or fear, or to give rise to a well-founded fear for his or her own safety or that of a close relative or of a person linked to him or her by an emotional relationship, or to force that person to alter his or her habits of life, with imprisonment of six months to four years, unless the act constitutes a more serious offence. Under the second paragraph, the penalty is increased if the act is committed by a legally separated or divorced spouse or by a person who has been linked to the injured person by an emotional relationship. The following paragraph provides for an increase in the penalty of up to one half if the act is committed to the detriment of a minor, of a pregnant woman or of a person with a disability under Article 3 of Law no. 104 of 5 February 1992, or with weapons or by a disguised person. In general the offence is prosecutable on the complaint of the injured person, the time limit for making the complaint being six months (rather than three months, as for almost all other offences). Proceedings may, however, be brought ex officio when the act is committed against a minor or against a person with a disability (Law 104/1992), and when the act is connected with another offence which must be prosecuted ex officio. The offence is also prosecutable ex officio when the person has been warned under and for the purposes of Article 8 of Decree-Law no. 11/2009, converted into Law no. 38/2009. Under that recent legislation, until a complaint is made for the offence of stalking, the injured person may report the facts to the public-security authority, asking the questore for a "warning" against the author of the conduct. The request is then transmitted, without delay, to the questore who, having obtained where necessary information from the investigating bodies and heard persons informed of the facts, if he considers the application well founded, orally warns the person against whom the measure has been requested. After that warning, any further persecutory conduct will make the offence prosecutable ex officio.