Harassment 1.3

Harassment is an extremely important issue that is usually over looked by most people. People sometimes believe that harassment is similar to bullying, and it’s just words spoken or a little teasing. However, to some people it is life changing; to them, it’s buying a new house to run away from their harasser, or being afraid to come out of their own home in fear of them and in some extremes, taking one’s own life. Although, in spite of this, there are key pieces of legislation that can help victims overcome their desolate times.

There are various types of behaviours and traits that can be considered as Harassment, such as; unnecessary physical contact, indecent demands or requests, inappropriate questioning, isolation, intimidating behaviour,

2 states that “the person in question ought to know that it [what they were doing] amounts to harassment.” This is a major flaw as the person may have some sort of evil intention, however, if they do not know what they are doing is regarded as harassment then it may be considered as un-intentional; this allows people to get away with obscene acts simply because they did not “know” what they were doing is regarded as harassment. Also, Section 1 .3, Subsection (1)c states “[Harassment] does not apply to a course of conduct if the person who pursued it shows—that in the particular circumstances the pursuit of the course of conduct was reasonable.” This subsection can be considered a flaw because there is no definition as to what “reasonable harassment” is, it may be left to the discretion of a jury panel to decide it, and because there are different juries for every case, there is no consistency as to what reasonable harassment may be considered as. Due to these reasons, if Jane were to file a report and peruse legal action, the person harassing her may fall under one of them two categories, either unintentionally or intentionally and there for may not be

Be that as it may, according to the ‘National Policing Improving Agency’ (NPIA), in their guide on ‘Investigation Stalking and Harassment’, “any form of communication that causes distress or anxiety” or “sending a message of menacing character” are improper uses of national communication and is a possible offence according to Section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act (1988) and Section 127 of the Communications Act (2003). So, although cyber-bullying is not a crime, the platform used to send these “menacing” messages makes it a crime. There are several ways Jane can counteract these messages she is receiving, such as; blocking the number contacting her, changing her phone number or putting all social media on private. However, doing these things only reinforces the fact that she is being harassed and stalked, and will most likely motivate her oppressor even more than