Attorney general, police, others address stalking at symposium

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Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan (left) talks Wednesday with Leonetta Rizzi of McHenry County Crisis Services (right) and Jane Farmer, executive director of Turning Point, after Madigan's keynote speech at McHenry County College's family violence symposium. Madigan spoke about a new state-wide initiative to make it easier for stalking victims to obtain orders of protection. She emphasized a report that found 76 percent of female homicide victims had been stalked. (Travis Haughton – thaughton@nwherald.com)

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CRYSTAL LAKE – Not all stalking victims know or have had a romantic relationship with their stalkers, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said Wednesday at a symposium at McHenry County College.

Madigan highlighted two new laws that expand protections for stalking victims and will go into effect Jan. 1. She spoke at the day-long stalking symposium, hosted by the 22nd Judicial Circuit Family Violence Coordinating Council.

More than 100 nurses, police officers, teachers, social workers and others attended the symposium to learn about those laws, practical advice for talking with stalkers and their victims, and how stalkers use technology.

“Many people view stalking as creepy, but not dangerous,” Madigan said.

“And even when victims see the danger and report the crime, stalking may be difficult for authorities to recognize, investigate, prosecute, and convict. Because, unlike other crimes, stalking is not a single, easily identifiable crime, but a series of acts directed at a victim.”

Last year, 54 stalking cases were prosecuted in Illinois, and only a handful resulted in convictions, Madigan said. To give stalking laws more teeth, Madigan drafted two bills that will go into effect in about two months.

The first expands stalking laws so that a person commits stalking when he or she engages in conduct that causes a reasonable person to fear for his or her safety or the safety of another or to suffer emotional distress. It requires the court to consider the victim’s knowledge of the offender and the context of the behavior.

The second law creates a no-contact order that protects those not covered under domestic-violence or sexual-assault laws. That means individuals who did not have a previous relationship with the stalker or were not sexually assaulted can ask a judge to prohibit stalking behavior. It uses the same definition of stalking as the first law.

Another speaker encouraged police officers to spend time talking with stalking suspects, who often will make incriminating statements while trying to rationalize their behavior. Speaker Rande Christiansen, a detective with the Seattle Police Department’s Domestic Violence Unit, also warned against using the victim’s level of fear to assess the threats he or she faced.

Christiansen flashed a picture of two dead animals on the front steps of a home to illustrate that point.

The resident’s former boyfriend recently had told her that he was going to leave dead animals on her doorstep, then leave a rattlesnake in her house, and then kill her.

After seeing the carcasses, the woman nailed the windows on her home shut and called police. But she only ranked her fear level as a two, on a scale of one to 10 with 10 being the most fearful, and was upset when police pursued criminal charges.

“How much violence do you think she went through in the past to make that a two?” Christiansen asked.

Domestic Violence and Stalking Resources

• Turning Point of McHenry County: 815-338-8081; www.mchenrycountyturningpoint.org

• McHenry County 24-Hour Crisis Line: 800-892-8900

• National Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-7233

• Stalking Resource Center: www.ncvc.org/SRC

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