Klobuchar-Hutchison bipartisan provision to strengthen stalking laws
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) successfully included a bipartisan provision to strengthen federal stalking laws in legislation reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which is currently set to expire in 2011.
The Klobuchar-Hutchison provision was supported by ESPN reporter Erin Andrews after a predator used modern technology to stalk her.
The senators’ legislation included in the Violence Against Women Act would help law enforcement more effectively target high-tech predators. Klobuchar said that the Violence Against Women Act, which is being introduced today by U.S. Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Mike Crapo (R-ID), has played a critical role in efforts to prevent domestic violence and alleviate its impact in communities across the nation.
“As a former prosecutor, I saw first-hand how domestic violence destroys families and damages lives,” Klobuchar said. “The Violence Against Women Act is vital to protecting women and children from abuse, and the strengthened stalking provisions in the legislation would help keep victims safe as the technology stalkers use advances.”
“I was proud to pass the original stalking bill, which has helped protect countless Americans from harassment by stalkers. And today, with technology developing so rapidly, current stalking laws need to be updated in order to address the new tactics being used to target innocent people,” Hutchison said. “This new stalking bill expands current laws to include cyber stalking and would authorize police to intervene in situations where victims are unaware they are being targeted.”
The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act introduced today includes a provision similar to bipartisan legislation Klobuchar and Hutchison introduced earlier this year, called the Stalkers Act of 2011, which would strengthen and update federal anti-stalking laws to better address the new technology predators are using to harass their victims.
Current federal anti-stalking laws are outdated and may not effectively cover all acts of electronic surveillance and other means of stalking, including spyware, bugging, video surveillance, and other new technology used by modern-day stalkers.
The Stalkers Act empowers law enforcement to prosecute any act of stalking that would “reasonably be expected” to cause a person serious emotional distress. Last year, ESPN reporter Erin Andrews, a victim of cyberstalking, joined Klobuchar to call for stronger federal anti-stalking laws.
Klobuchar has also introduced the Support for Survivors Act, which would assist victims of sexual trauma in the military by requiring the Department of Defense to ensure life-long storage of all documents connected with reports of sexual assaults and sexual harassment across all branches of the U.S. military.
In 1996, Sen. Hutchison introduced S. 1729, the Interstate Stalking Punishment and Prevention Act – signed into law later that year by President Clinton — which made it a federal crime to cross a state line to stalk an individual with the intent to harass or injure that person.
Organized Stalking: A very hateful, disturbing, destructive and growing crime of stalking worldwide. http://www.multistalkervictims.org/osatv.pdf
There needs to be training, awareness, services and resources in our local communities. A community effort to work with the victim and police to help document the stalking activity and hold stalkers accountable.