In this instructional video – one in a series of training videos on stalking sponsored by the Stalking Prevention, Awareness, and Resource Center (SPARC) – a prosecutor suggests ways in which prosecutors can generally improve their work on stalking cases.
The instructional advice is provided by Jane Anderson, a prosecutor and Attorney Advisor for AEquitas, a nonprofit organization with the mission of improving access to and quality of justice in gender-based violence and human trafficking cases. She advises that prosecutors should study their state’s stalking law and how a state’s courts have interpreted various behaviors as stalking. She suggests focusing on how specific behaviors or behavioral patterns by a defendant have adversely impacted the victim. She notes that the standard of how a “reasonable person” would react to the defendant’s behavior at issue, attention should be given to the full context of the dynamics of the defendant-victim interactions over time.