Digitally Tracked Victims and Abusers: Lithuanian Case Law on Technology-Facilitated Partner Stalking

Abstract

Background. Though technology-facilitated partner stalking is a prevalent form of abuse, prosecutorial research in this field is underdeveloped. Online and offline violence reinforce each other, but this interaction could be leveraged as technology-enabled resistance and evidence. Method. This study employs a doctrinal legal research design, combined with qualitative content analysis, focused on Lithuania’s national-level case law. Fifty-seven court and pre-trial decisions were compiled into a dataset for the study. The main objective of this paper is to identify typical tech stalking behaviors and the criminal law’s response to them. Results and Conclusions. The national case law analysis supports previous empirical findings regarding motivation, typical tactics, and effects of technology-facilitated partner stalking. Deficiencies of national anti-stalking legislation reinforce the difficulties of prosecuting tech abuse. Charging decisions are not consistent and get even more complicated in cases of polyvictimization and non-physical violence. The success of criminal proceedings largely depends on the active involvement of victims, thereby potentially leading to repeat, extended, and secondary victimization. The practice of lenient sanctioning and technical challenges adds constraints on effective prosecution. However, even within the existing national legal framework, there is potential to improve the criminal law’s response by developing digital literacy of the population, building specialized professional capacities (both legal and technical) within law agencies, and expanding the responsibilities of tech developers.