The Criminal Code's Response to the Act of Stalking - Implementation of the Istanbul Convention 10 Years Later

Abstract

In order to prevent and combat all forms of violence against women, Istanbul Convention recognize stalking as a serios form of gender - based violence against the women, equal as all other forms of physical, sexual and psychological harassment. Topic of this work is to discuss where are border lines between socially acceptable conduct in which one person tries to get in touch with another, and when this conduct became form of violence that requires a criminal code reaction to protect victims right to private life. Furthermore, stalking is predicate crime, especially for domestic violence. Repeated attempts to unwanted contact can have seriously psychological consequences for the victim. To prevent that persistent contact from having serious consequences on the victim`s private life, it is crucial for the victim to identify in time when the behavior becomes stalking, in order to file a complaint appropriate timely manner, so that state law enforcement can react and provide protection. But the question is whether the Criminal Code requests that stalking is a repeated behavior how much intrusion is enough or is there any time frame in which intrusion must last longer, for reasonable and prompt reaction before the stalking gain some of the form of domestic violence.