Advocates for the victims of domestic violence and sexual assault came to the Statehouse Thursday to urge lawmakers to pass more useful laws on stalking.

 

Right now, they said, the state’s legal definition of stalking makes it difficult for police and prosecutors to go after stalkers. State law says that in order to qualify as stalking, the stalker must pose “a credible threat with the intent to place (the victim) in reasonable fear” for their safety.

  

That’s a standard prosecutors often can’t meet, said Sandy Barnett, executive director of the Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence. The coalition, an organization of rape crisis workers and victims’ advocates, is the leading voice for domestic violence issues at the state level. Coalition members said that this year, tougher stalking laws are the priority.

 

 

They have at least one ally. State Rep. Kasha Kelley, an Arkansas City Republican, is sponsoring a bill to redefine stalking to make it easier for authorities to prosecute the crime.

  

“It’s difficult to prove and even more difficult to prosecute,” Kelley said of the current stalking law. “… It’s a very difficult hurdle for law enforcement to get past.”

  

Barnett said a recent review of cases across the state show only 183 stalking cases in a year – despite the fact that more than 4,000 protection from stalking orders are filed in the courts in the same 12 months.

  

Kelley said she was prompted in part by the murder of a young woman from her hometown last year. Jodi Sanderholm, 19, was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a man who had stalked her dance team. The man was arrested and faces charges in Sanderholm’s death.

  

According to Barnett, one in 12 American women will be stalked during their lifetime. Four out of five women stalked by a former or current partner are also physically assaulted by the stalker, she said, and 75 percent of women killed in domestic violence incidents were stalked by their killer.

 

The stalking law isn’t the only change the coalition is seeking this year. They want a change in the law that would make it easier for authorities to spot repeat domestic violence offenders.

 

Right now, courts can’t always tell if an offender’s previous convictions (for crimes like property destruction, arson or even assault) were related to past domestic violence.

  

Former Attorney General Bob Stephan, chairman of the Governor’s Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board, wants lawmakers to approve a “domestic violence tag” that would go on the record of any offenders convicted of crimes related to domestic violence.

  

The coalition also uses its day at the capitol to remind lawmakers of the importance of tough domestic violence laws. Stephan said he suspects domestic violence may be the most commonly committed crime in the country, but that “it’s almost invisible” to the general public.