Stalking from an interdisciplinary perspective

Stalking is interdisciplinary phenomenon, and therefore in order to fully understand it, one needs to be equipped with psychological, sociological and criminological background knowledge. Stalking differs from other crimes in that it usually involves different forms of psychological harassment: threats, following, monitoring, destroying the victim’s possessions as well as resorting to the harassment of people close to the victim. Stalkers can make use of different equipment such as cameras, computers, mobile phones, GPS devices and also more specific devices enabling them to hack into someone’s computer and gain access to private data. The presented variety of behaviours that stalking usually involves makes it difficult to assess it applying a standard case–based approach. There is also great difficulty in foreseeing all the possible actions the culprit may resort to. The approach to the phenomenon of stalking has changed. As a result, no longer is a pushy suitor and his advances towards an admired woman treated nor seen as merely a reason for feeling flattered. The right to privacy gives us the freedom of deciding what we want to do and also in principal guarantees that others cannot invade our personal space. Hence, stalking to any degree should not be accepted by the society and law.Uniwersytet w Białymstok