Commentary: For victims of stalking, a new court may relieve some of the bitter agony
SINGAPORE: Five years ago, in June 2016, a man was jailed for 12 months for stalking and harassing his former lover.
Information technology was a historic instance – the first conviction of a stalker under the Protection from Harassment Deed, or POHA.
Until POHA came into force in November 2014, there was most zip people who were being stalked could do about it. Unless there was concrete violence, the police could practice little beyond issuing a warning.
Stalking and other forms of harassment were simply not criminal offences. To attempt to get a harasser to terminate, y'all had to file a civil arrange to get an injunction.
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FOUR YEARS OF HARASSMENT
The closest in that location was to a constabulary nether which stalkers could be taken to task was the Miscellaneous Offences Act. In 2011, a woman was bedevilled under this police for having harassed old announcer Joanne Lee for four years.
Over those four years, Joanne's mental health deteriorated to the bespeak where she dared not answer her function phone. She was in a abiding state of anxiety, suffered panic attacks and became withdrawn.
Joanne had to file three police reports and produce hundreds of messages and emails, hours of voice messages, and countless gifts she had received from the woman, earlier the Chaser General'due south Chambers (AGC) decided in that location was enough show to prosecute.
The stalker, who was found to accept schizophrenia, pleaded guilty and was fined S$4,000.
If POHA had been in existence and so, Joanne could accept been spared some of the distress she suffered.
She could take applied for a protection order against her stalker. If the stalker persisted with harassment, the police could have stepped in and the AGC could have prosecuted her. And if plant guilty, the stalker could have faced not simply a fine just as well a jail sentence.
POHA criminalised harassment, stalking and other anti-social behaviour, in recognition of the many ways in which such behaviour manifests, and the seriousness of its bear on.
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And starting in June, a specialised Protection from Harassment Court and streamlined processes, including online filing of claims, volition make it easier for victims of stalking and other forms of harassment to get Protection Orders, and for cases to be heard more apace.
REDRESS FOR VAST NUMBERS OF VICTIMS
POHA was passed as well belatedly for Joanne, merely it has brought relief and redress for a good number of victims of harassment since it became law.
In May 2019, when the Law Ministry made some amendments to the Act, it was revealed there had been more than i,700 prosecutions nether POHA.
Details of these prosecutions are not known, but undoubtedly some would have been for stalking. Police say they handled an average of most 50 stalking cases a year between 2022 and 2020.
Simply these are likely to be just a fraction of the bodily incidence.
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In the UK, it is thought that one in five women and 1 in 10 men experience stalking during their adult life, according to Paladin, a stalking advocacy service. In the US, the 2022 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey says that one in half dozen women and ane in 17 men have experienced stalking in their lifetimes.
To some — especially those who believe physical violence to be more serious than psychological violence — stalking might seem to be relatively mild or harmless behaviour.
This notion is likely exacerbated past irresponsible narrative tropes too ofttimes plant in popular culture, which laud a prospective lover for his "persistence" even after he is rejected past the object of his amore.
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Yet for those who have experienced stalking, which these days includes cyber-stalking, the outcome can be devastating and life-changing: Abiding anxiety, fear, acrimony, terror, panic attacks, depression, self-doubt, insecurity, loss of cocky-esteem. These affect both mental and physical health, which in turn affects their work and social lives.
Afterwards all, stalking, like all forms of sexual violence, is ultimately about asserting power and control over another person - in regularly reminding them that their privacy is beingness eroded and their life is not entirely their own.
With today'southward multitudinous points of access into someone's life - not merely at their homes or workplaces, but on their social media and other digital accounts - perpetrators take and then many more means to do just that.
A Instance OF PROLONGED AND VICIOUS STALKING
In the 2022 instance of the start stalker to be jailed under POHA, the teenage victim had suicidal thoughts during the three years she was harassed by a former boyfriend.
After their brief sexual relationship, he insisted on accompanying her to schoolhouse and back. When she tried to avoid him by blocking him on her phone, he posted nude pictures of her on her school's social media platforms and distributed flyers with these pictures in her neighbourhood.
In sending the stalker to jail, District Judge Lim Keng Yeow said the man'southward acts and threats were prolonged and unrelenting, and acute and cruel.
They were, the judge said, "aimed at keeping the victim trapped nether his power so as to do his bidding and calculated to cause as much embarrassment and inflict as much humiliation as possible".
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VICTIMS OTHERWISE Endure IN SILENCE
Psychologists say in that location are several types of stalkers, including those driven by animalism, the beloved-scorned (usually an acquaintance), and those who stalk celebrities.
Most commonly, however, stalkers are electric current or former intimate partners. And, every bit with other forms of sexual violence, victims of stalking may not seek aid because they do not fully understand what is happening to them or realise that it is illegal.
They may not know where they can become for assist. They may blame themselves for "having landed themselves in such a situation", or they may think no ane will believe them.
For i woman who called AWARE's Sexual Assault Care Heart, her anguish was compounded by the fact that her stalker was a man with whom she had had an extramarital affair. Despite the affair ending, her ex-lover stalked and harassed her persistently, repeatedly demanding that she come away with him.
In Singapore, the legal framework is in identify, with what constitutes stalking and harassment clearly defined. And it has just been fabricated simpler and easier for people who are existence harassed to seek redress.
As Law and Home Affairs Government minister K Shanmugam recently said, people need to know that they do non have to suffer in silence because at that place is a system to protect them.
(Who gives sexual assault victims 2d chances? Is gender equality a pipe dream because men serve NS? Heed to Minister Thou Shanmugam give his frank have on women's issues, sexual attack and NS on CNA's Heart of the Matter podcast.)
OUTREACH AND EDUCATION
What is now needed is outreach and instruction so people know they have recourse to assistance (for case, the National Care Hotline) if someone is causing them distress and hurting.
But in the longer term, we have to educate our children about such matters. We need comprehensive sexuality pedagogy in our schools to prepare young people for the relationships they will take in life, both good and bad.
They need, for case, to understand the psychology and power dynamics backside stalking behaviours. They need to know why acts such as these are wrong, and what to do if it happens to them – or if they find themselves drawn to such behaviour.
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While in that location are, of course, female stalkers and male person victims of stalking, the statistics show that like and then many facets of sexual violence, stalking is linked to a gendered power imbalance. So ultimately, as Minister Shanmugam declared in September 2020, we can only promise to reduce the incidence of sexual violence if there is gender equality.
"Every boy and girl must grow up imbibing the value of gender equality," he said. "They need to be taught from a very early on age that boys and girls are to be treated every bit, and very importantly, with respect. It has to be a deep mindset change."
Let's hope this does not have a generation or two. Much will depend on whether we as a society can come together and commit to this vision of gender equality.
A expert starting time will be made if the Government'due south White Paper that is due later this year paints a bold and inspiring picture of what tin be, with a clear pathway of the applied steps that will be taken to get united states to the goal of a gender-equal Singapore.
Margaret Thomas is President of AWARE.
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/stalking-harassment-singapore-poha-sexual-ex-boyfriend-admirer-270511
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