Stalking occurs when a person engages in a course of conduct or repeatedly communicates and/or commits acts toward another person, including following the person without proper authority, under circumstances that demonstrate or communicate either of the following:
- an intent to place the other person in reasonable fear of bodily injury; or
- an intent to cause substantial emotional distress to the other person.
A course of conduct is when a person engages in two or more acts that include, but are not limited to, acts in which the stalker directly, indirectly, or through third parties, by any action, method, device, or means, follows, monitors, observes, surveys, threatens, or communicates to or about a person in a prohibited way, or interferes with a person’s property.
Stalking includes the concept of cyberstalking, a particular form of stalking in which electronic media such as the internet, social networks, blogs, cell phones, texts, or other similar devices or forms of contact are used to pursue, harass, or to make unwelcome contact with another person in an unsolicited fashion.
Examples of stalking include:
- Unwelcome and repeated visual or physical proximity to a person
- Repeated oral or written threats
- Extortion of money or valuables
- Unwelcome/unsolicited written communication, including letters, cards, emails, instant messages, and messages on online bulletin boards
- Unwelcome/unsolicited communications about a person, their family, friends, or co-workers; or
- Sending/posting unwelcome/unsolicited messages with an assumed identity; or
- Implicitly threatening physical contact; or
- Any combination of these behaviors directed toward an individual person.
When acts of stalking occur in the context of intimate-partner violence or when the behavior is perpetrated on the basis of sex or gender, the conduct will be resolved under the Sexual Assault and Harassment Policy.