First Legal Approach to Criminalize Stalking Behaviors in Spain: Applicability in Deterring Partner Violence

• In Event: Difficult-to-Detect-Violence: An Empirical and Political Discussion

Abstract

Stalking has been linked to physical and property violence between partners (e.g., McFarlane, Campbell, & Watson, 2002), which is concerning because current Spanish laws do not criminalize stalking. Current laws only punish threatening behaviors (e.g., verbal threats, non-verbal intimidation, invasion of property, psychological coercion, and physical coercion) or contacting victims with active protection orders. The government has recently proposed the first bill criminalizing stalking behaviors, which expands on current laws by castigating non-threatening approaches (i.e., face-to-face contacts, following, and surveillance), non-intimidatory communications (i.e., show affection), and information misuse. While data collection is still ongoing, the goals of this study are: (1) Describing the prevalence of stalking behaviors addressed by this bill. (2) Examining whether these behaviors predict physical and property violence when controlling for the factors currently criminalized by Spanish laws (i.e., threatening behavior and active protection orders). Stalkers in our preliminary sample (N = 123) were males with partner violence antecedents who verbally threatened and approached their ex-partners. A third of the stalkers aggressed the victims and/or their properties. Logistic regressions results showed that stalking behaviors in the new bill (i.e., showing affection and face-to-face contacts) predicted physical and property violence. Implications of the new bill for victim protection will be discussed.

Authors

• Rosa Vinas-Racionero, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

• Chitra Raghavan, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

• Mario Scalora, University of Nebraska - Lincoln