The essence of stalking as a socially dangerous act and the role of information of private character with signs of secrecy in the formation of tactics behavior of pursuer

Abstract

he article examines the feasibility of criminalizing obsessive persecution, the so-called «stalking». A concept that has grabbedattention over the past thirty years abroad, having become the subject of a significant amount of research. The reasons for the formationof a trend to consolidate responsibility for stalking are analyzed, which took shape in the early nineties of the last century and todayhas become part of the legislation of large parts of the world. At the same time, the very concept of stalking appeared in the scientificliterature long before that, being mainly the subject of research by psychiatrists, characterized it as a certain state of mind. Attention isdrawn to the fact that now stalking has already become somewhat stratified, being considered primarily as a type of illegal behavior.The latter infringes on the inviolability of private life and information of private character with signs of secrecy, which is the source ofthe formation of tactics of stalker behavior. The latter, in turn, aims to control the victim, forcing her to abandon her usual way of life.In this context, it is questioned that domestic legislation does not recognize such behavior as illegal, as well as the lack of relevantstatistics on the number of persecuted persons. In this regard, the official data on other countries that are actively studying this phenome -non are considered. According to their data, up to 15% of people have been persecuted at least once in their lives, which indicate a seriousprevalence of this behavior, which is definitely not limited to a single country or continent. This gives grounds to assert that Ukraineis not an exception either, and the absence of any statistics does not mean the absence of this problem. The latter only indicates a lackof attention to the problems of stalking and an underestimation of the possible consequences.All this gives grounds to assert that today the victims of persecution are almost defenseless, and the existing legal regulation isunable to protect citizens from obsessive persecution. Separately, the presence of a sufficient level of public danger from stalking isassessed to be recognized as a criminal offense at the level of law. Attention is focused on the danger of stalking, which has a widerange of manifestations and is characterized by unpredictable consequences. After all, it was precisely the cases of grave consequencesthat received a public response that prompted a number of Western countries to recognize stalking as a criminal offense.Summing up the results, the position on the criminalization of stalking is given, in this connection; it is proposed to amend thecurrent Criminal Code of Ukraine. At the same time, this should not be realized by changing the existing norms, but precisely by creatinga new separate norm. As an approach that turned out to be the most effective in ensuring the protection of human rights and freedoms.Among other things, this will also perform a preventive function against crimes that infringe on information of private characterwith signs of secrecy.