Domestic
Violence and Stalking Behaviour:
The
need for criminalizing emotional and psychological woman abuse
Domestic violence stalking is a type of woman abuse where husbands or partners engage in a pattern of constant and systematic harassment, manipulation, and isolation conducts against their wives or partners while they live together. This causes profound emotional and psychological –but not necessarily physical- abuse to the victims of these behaviours.
Canadian Law does not criminalize domestic violence stalking, as the conducts employed by current intimates are not covered by the stalking offence or any other crime in the Canadian Criminal Code.
The goal of the research colloquium is to present the results of an exploratory, qualitative, and in-depth study on the typical behaviours of domestic violence stalkers and to propose the reform of the current stalking offence by including these conducts within the actus reus of the existing stalking crime.