Harassment and Stalking- Introduction

Question 1

Q: When was the offence of harassment first developed?

Answer 1

Developed in the civil law when people began to seek injunctions against harassing behaviour.
Courts were forced to consider whether there was a tort (civil wrong) of harassment.

Question 2

Q: When was the criminal offence of harassment introduced?

Answer 2

Protection from Harassment Act 1997- contains both criminal and civil offences.

Question 3

Q: What actually amounts to harassment?

Answer 3

Never fully defined. It will be a matter for the court to decide in each case, whether any conduct complained of actually amounts to harassment.
Except to the extent that the Act states, harassment includes alarming the person or causing the person them distress.

Question 4

Q: What does ‘alarmed’ mean?

Answer 4

Someone can be alarmed for the safety of another.
Eg: police officer could be alarmed for the safety of a child.

Question 5

Q: What are the 2 different types of harassment?

Answer 5

1: Simple harassment
2: Aggravated harassment