Zehn Jahre Anti-Stalking-Gesetz

With the enactment of the "Gesetz zur Strafbarkeit beharrlicher Nachstellungen", the first German special anti-stalking law "§ 238 StGB - Nachstellung" entered the German criminal code. About ten years later, in 2017, the legislature launched a reform of the anti-stalking norms to strengthen the victim's interests.

The author examines the psychological and sociological aspects of the stalking phenomenon and presents the development of the legal situation in Germany regarding the punishability of stalking activities taking into account a time window that extends from the 1990s to the year 2017. The main focus is on the discussion of the anti-stalking standards introduced in 2007 and their implications, as well as the analysis and evaluation of the changes through the 2017 reform.

The paper provides stalking practitioners with an overview of all the legal issues. It shows that standardization is not conceivable due to the complexity of the phenomenon stalking without undefined legal concepts, and offers possibilities of interpretation. It also critically examines whether the legislator has respected the limits of constitutional law in both 2007 and 2017, in particular the determinateness.