California victims with domestic violence restraining orders are finding that protective orders are ineffective and useless at combating 21st century technology being utilized by batterers and stalkers. Domestic violence victims are reporting statewide that batterers are monitoring their on-line blogs and web sites yet the electronic monitoring of these women on-line by their batterers is not deemed to be a violation of a domestic violence protective order. Sound complicated? It is.
Restraining orders and stalking laws have not evolved along with 21st century technology nationally. The needs of victims in the 21st century are different and require special legislative measures to prevent batterers and stalkers from taking full advantage of the complexities created through the use of technology.
The wide spread use of social networking sites, blogs, web sites and the world wide web for both business and pleasure it would seem obvious that victims would need to be protected from contact and on-line harassment from batterers, however it is not that cut and dry.
Today everyone has the ability to monitor their web site and blog traffic with the use of free web counters which record all incoming and outgoing traffic, IP address, city and state, key words and the duration. These web counters are utilized by many individuals, businesses and more and more frequently domestic violence and stalking victims to monitor web traffic. Yet prosecutors are reluctant to prosecute batterers for monitoring victim’s blogs and web sites claiming that the World Wide Web is public domain and that blogs and web sites are not protected.
In one case in Los Angeles the batterer is monitoring the victim on-line monitoring the victim’s blog and web site for hours every day and although the batterer has been convicted of domestic violence in the past and now has an active criminal case pending against for charges stemming from stalking to terrorist threats, yet this on-line activity is not being deemed a violation of the victims domestic violence restraining order by prosecutors.
This is alarming especially when Department of Justice reports that 76% of women who were murdered are stalked prior to their deaths.
Batterers are receiving what can best be described as a 21st Century free pass until law makers and victim advocates help to improve stalking and restraining order statutory language and guidelines to include the words “electronic monitoring of blogs and web sites” as violations and part of stalking statutory language.
If you are a victim of domestic violence or stalking your are not alone. Statistics indicate that, one in four women (that’s 25% of all women in North America) has experienced domestic violence in her lifetime. It is imperative that the laws keep up with the needs of victims in the 21st century in order to ensure that no victim is left behind. The San Diego County District Attorney's office has one of the highest regarding stalking units in the nation and their web site is chalked full of resources and information for victims. San Diego County Stalking Unit
*Victim’s names omitted to protect their safety.
Comments
I agree that victims do not have enough resources to deal with high-tech stalking in California. Law enforcement agencies feel that they can't do anything, and unless it is a high profile case, like a movie star being stalked, there is nothing they can do. A victim can log incident after incident and death threats for years and still not have any assistance with their case. This is very sad and unacceptable. California needs a statewide Stalking Unit that is proactive and can act and enforce laws already in place, to prevent victims being murdered.
Restraining orders and the violation of restraining orders when it pertains to cyber stalking is a joke. I went to the police department to file a violation of my protective order and I had to pull teeth to get them to take the report. Then the City Attorney's office said that it is hard to prove that the offender actually is monitoring me on the internet, however, a program that logs the offenders IP address and location is useful, but it's not enough. The language needs to be changed to reflect issues of the 21st century and the hi-tech ways in which the offender has access and how they are charged with the violation.
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