STALKING CRIME

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE ART. 147-A FROM THE PENAL CODE

Abstract

The purpose of the present article is to make a critical analysis about the insertion of stalking conduct as a crime in the Brazilian Penal Code through the Law nº14.132/21, receiving the nomen iuris “stalking”, specially, in reference to the obstacles in the effective enforcement of the criminal norm. In face of that, it is extracted the following specific objectives: a) address about the law nº14.132/21 due to the criminalization of stalking in Brazil; b) talk about the revocation of the criminal misdemeanor of tranquility disturbance, with emphasis on the occurrence of abolitio criminis and the hypothesis of typical-continuity; c) raise the controversies and interpretative difficulties from the art. 147-A from the Penal Code; and d) present the challenges of penal persecution and probatory production of the stalking crime. Clarifies that the stalking crime consists in the act of stalking a person through a set of artifices of stalking repeatedly, and it may be by physical methods, or by electronic devices, which in this case is called cyberstalking. This criminal phenomenon is very frequent, although it can be barely noticeable, because the conduct can be mistaken with a romantic act or concern that occurs in romantic relationships, since there is a fine line and hard to distinguish between the romantic and the obsessive. Therefore, the study about this theme justifies because of the controversies and the interpretative difficulties of the art. 147-A of the Penal Code and it’s subjectivity, hindering the application of the norm in practice, due to the difficulty to relate the fact with the criminal type, as well as for the challenges that emerge in penal persecution in relation to the investigation of the stalking crime and to probatory production. Therefore, the present study was made by descriptive and exploratory bibliographic research, using information contained in legislation, doctrines and scientific articles related to the theme.