A succession of stalking-related behaviors can result in criminal activity. Such behavior may lead to the formation of a routine that makes an associate fearful. A major crime that caused widespread hysteria resulted in innocent or attempted contacts being charged with serious crimes. The unlawful behavior consists of actions that maintain the target in conditions that make them feel threatened, bullied, or afraid. (Gosselin, 2014). The judicial system developed various stalking laws to prevent such intentions as a result of various stalking patterns that were determined to be illegal. In this context, the offender was convicted through resentful stalking. Resentful stalking refers to a stalking where a person hunts or tracks down their victims with an intention that causes mental stress and uneasiness (Mullen, Pathé, & Purcell, 2001). First, the lady’s ex-boyfriend was found following her to the campus she was studying on while he was not a student in the said school. Second, the woman saw him packing his car outside the bar where she had gone for a night out with her friends. In other instances, she was receiving hang up calls in the middle of the evening. The purpose of resentful stalking is to unsettle and distress the victim to seek retribution and constitutes a specific goal while targeting a particular victim.
Part A #2
The best approach in this scenario is to avoid police intervention. Such an action would cause her more harm and endanger her life. Firstly, stalking may spring grave retaliation from the lady’s ex-boyfriend. The stalker is a short-tempered person and contacting the authorities can make him have the thought of handling the situation physically. The result of such a decision might not be predicted, though there might be fatal impacts to the victim. People who use resentful stalking suffer due to feelings of past regrets and treatments prompting them to seek retribution. Seeking police intervention might worsen the situation as the guy might decide to pursue his mission with aggression and rejuvenated efforts. He may be prompted to turn chaotic, thus, inflicting fatal damages to the extent of committing murder.
Secondly stalking is a different form of major crimes as it involves a series of actions rather than a single act. However, when such acts are considered individually, it may not constitute illegal behavior. It is estimated that most of the stalker’s desire to their victim starts mainly after they had a personal relationship and worsens if they had an intimate relationship that ended. From the scenario, it is evident that the stalker was the lady’s ex-boyfriend. There were key series of intimidating events that included the guy following the woman in various places on campus, parking his car outside the bar where the lady had gone for a night out with her friends, and the lady receiving hang up calls in the middle of the night. Such series of actions were enough to constitute an illegal behavior given the fact that the guy was the lady’s boyfriend twelve months ago.
Part B #1
Violence against women has been a worldwide issue where most of them become frequent victims of partner violence (Gosselin, 2014). In this scenario, we can see Janice ended up dead after being threatened by her partner. However, some laws help minimize and curb the issue of partner violence. Arguing from the case scenario described in the context, officer Smith may have challenges in testifying against James for Janice’s murder. There is need of sufficient evidence to justify that James is indeed guilty. During the trial, officer Smith is expected to give his testimony on the case meaning that he has abundant supportive evidence over his testimony against James. The officer should conceal the fact that he was informed by Janice about James intentions to commit murder. However, James disappeared as soon as he realized that the police were contacted, thus, avoiding arrest. This made it hard to get sufficient evidence that he committed the act. Moreover, the matter is made worse by Janice’s failure to pursue a restraining order so that the police could ensure that James got arrested. There is no proof that James is guilty which provides room for an argument. On the other hand, Janice could have other personal issues, thus, using it as bait to trap James and make him suffer from unproven accusations. Officer Smith might be blamed for accusing James on false grounds, thus, prompting his integrity on the performance of the office in question.
Secondly, given that James is now the primary suspect, it would be easier for the authorities to accuse him of the murder, even though he might not be the one who committed the crime. However, officer Smith’s confession would be an advantage to the suspect. James could use the testimony from officer Smith against him and force him to explain which steps he took to protect Janice from the ordeal. According to law, the moment officer Smith learnt of James’ intentions, he should have pursued the case and arrested him while carrying proper investigations. The officer could be prosecuted because of duty neglect, thus, creating trouble by testifying that he was aware of her murder.
Part B #2
In the case, there are two primary options the police can take to save themselves from Janice’s’ murder trial and ensuring justice was made. The first choice is to arrest James for further interrogations to gather more evidence on the murder case. They can invest in intelligence strategies to coerce James to disclose what he knows about Janice’s death. If James gave hints about Janice murderers, they could utilize the information to make an arrest and bring them to trial. If the evidence were valid, the police would have the authority to make them pay for their atrocities.
The second option would be based on whether James denies disclosing any information on Janice’s murder. The police can decide to ignore the past claims for them to be granted the consent to start new investigations. It will compel them to pursue Janice’s murderers direct rather than having to rely on James which might land them in trouble. They can start accessing the phone contacts that Janice called or received before her tragic death. Additionally, it would be good for them to analyze other factors, such as the bullets used to kill her. This is because Janice murder could even be caused by other people apart from James who could have taken advantage of her conflict with James. The murder could have been motivated and castigated because James’ presence could be used as a cover up.
References
Gosselin, D. K. (2014, 5th Ed.). Heavy hands: An introduction to the crimes of intimate and family violence. Pearson.
Mullen, P. E., Pathé, M., & Purcell, R. (2001). Stalking: New constructions of human behavior. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 35(1), 9-16.
