Report Title:

Cyberstalking

 

Description:

Defines "electronic communication" in the penal code. Amends harassment and terroristic threatening statutes to clearly include electronic communications. Establishes criminal penalties for repeated electronic communications to spouses, ex-spouses, and other similar parties, or made in violation of court order.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

153

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to CRIMINAL electronic communications.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that in this new age of information, individuals have an ever-increasing ability to communicate with the world. Over a short span of time, computers, the internet, digital cameras, videotape, and a incredible variety of other communications media have become available to the average citizen. The legislature finds that this technology has fostered new activities of all kinds. These include the activities of criminals who use communications technology to stalk, harass, and threaten, thereby invading their victim's privacy and destroying their victim's peace of mind. The legislature finds that to protect the victims of these contemporary crimes, the State's criminal laws must be brought forward into the present.

The purpose of this Act is to amend the State's harassment and terroristic threatening laws to encompass crimes committed by those who misuse electronic communications media. This Act attempts to account for the full range of these crimes, from crimes in which communications technology is used to harass and annoy, to crimes where the technology is used to communicate threats of violence and death, or to repeatedly harass and threaten a victim in defiance of court order. The Act also seeks to facilitate criminal prosecution by recognizing that harassment and stalking using communications technology is characterized by repeated electronic communications, and by making an appropriate range of penalties available to protect victims of this ongoing criminal activity.

SECTION 2. Section 707-715, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§707-715 Terroristic threatening, defined. (1) A person commits the offense of terroristic threatening if the person threatens, by word, electronic communication, or conduct, to cause bodily injury to another person or serious damage to property of another or to commit a felony:

[(1)](a) With the intent to terrorize, or in reckless disregard of the risk of terrorizing, another person; or

[(2)](b) With intent to cause, or in reckless disregard of the risk of causing evacuation of a building, place of assembly, or facility of public transportation.

(2) For purposes of this section, "electronic communication" means signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data, or intelligence of any nature transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio, electromagnetic, photoelectronic, photooptical, or other system or device utilizing electrical power, including telephones, cellular phones, computers, electronic storage devices, video recorders, facsimile machines, and pagers."

SECTION 3. Section 711-1100, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new definition to be appropriately inserted and to read as follows:

""Electronic communication" means signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data, or intelligence of any nature transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio, electromagnetic, photoelectronic, photooptical, or other system or device utilizing electrical power, including telephones, cellular phones, computers, electronic storage devices, video recorders, facsimile machines, and pagers."

SECTION 4. Section 711-1106, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§711-1106 Harassment. (1) A person commits the offense of harassment if, with intent to harass, annoy, or alarm any other person, that person:

(a) Strikes, shoves, kicks, or otherwise touches another person in an offensive manner or subjects the other person to offensive physical contact;

(b) Insults, taunts, or challenges another person in a manner likely to provoke an immediate violent response or that would cause the other person to reasonably believe that the actor intends to cause bodily injury to the recipient or another or damage to the property of the recipient or another;

(c) Repeatedly makes an [telephone calls, facsimile, or electronic mail transmissions] electronic communication without purpose of legitimate communication;

(d) Repeatedly makes a communication anonymously or at an extremely inconvenient hour;

(e) Repeatedly makes communications, after being advised by the person to whom the communication is directed that further communication is unwelcome; or

(f) Makes a communication using offensively coarse language that would cause the recipient to reasonably believe that the actor intends to cause bodily injury to the recipient or another or damage to the property of the recipient or another.

(2) Harassment is a petty misdemeanor[.] unless the actions constituting the offense are repeated electronic communications in violation of:

(a) An existing court order, other than one issued ex parte, restraining the person subject to prosecution under this section from contacting, threatening, or physically abusing the same complainant; or

(b) A condition of probation or pretrial release involving the same complainant,

in which case harassment is a misdemeanor.

(3) A person convicted of an offense under subsection (1) (c), (d), or (e) may be required to undergo a counseling program as ordered by the court."

SECTION 5. This Act shall not affect any rights, duties, or responsibilities which have matured, penalties that were incurred, or proceedings that were begun before its effective date.

SECTION 6. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 7. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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