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What is the legal definition of stalking?
Stalking is a “course of conduct” (two or more incidents) that involves surveillance over a specific person for the purpose of intimidating the person or his/her family members. It could include behaviors such as the following:
- sending unwanted written or verbal communications to a specific person;
- threatening a specific person verbally, in writing, or in an implied (unspoken) way;
- committing acts of vandalism against a specific person;
- repetitive acts of harassment through words, gestures, or actions made with the intention of intimidating, threatening, or following the victim and/or members of her/his family.1 Note: For these purposes, “family” is defined as:
- your spouse, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, or cousin; or any other person related to you by blood or marriage who is part of your nuclear family;
- a significant other with whom you live or used to live; or someone with whom you are/were dating relationship; or
- a person with whom you live or used to live in the same house for at least six months before the stalking started.2
1 33 L.P.R.A. § 4013(a),(b)
2 33 L.P.R.A. § 4013(c)
