Whither the Protection for Cyberstalking Victims? Some evidence from Malaysia

Abstract

Cyberstalking leads to a chain of reactions such as identity theft, rape, and even murder. Despite the severe ramifications of cyberstalking, the perception of the adequacy of the law and the legal protection for victims remain ambiguous. This paper aims at examining the perception of the criminalisation of such crime, the gendered nature of such crime and the attendant legal protection for its victims. This paper adopts a qualitative methodology. The preliminary findings revealed that such crime is not considered as a gendered crime and there exists ambivalence on the perception of the crime and the legal protection of victims.   

Keywords: Cyber Stalking, Criminalisation, Gender, Secondary Victimisation, Victim-Blaming Mentality.   

eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5iSI1.2297