RICHMOND, Va. — Starting July 1, Virginia law enforcement will have a new legal tool to pursue cyberstalking cases — but domestic violence advocates and the lawmakers behind the change say much more is needed to support victims.
Under the new legislation, Virginia's stalking law will be updated to include definitions covering cyberstalking, such as harassment through messaging apps or email. A first conviction is a Class 1 misdemeanor. A second conviction within five years is a Class 6 felony.
Advocates say the final product is weaker than it was when first introduced, but call it a needed step forward.
"With technological developments accelerating at a rapid pace, this is only going to be a bigger and bigger problem over time," Courtenay Schwartz, Policy Director of the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance (VSDVAA), said.
Schwartz says cyberstalking is rarely a standalone issue, but part of what advocates see in broader domestic violence cases.
"In the course of our work, what we see is it's one tool of control that abusers are very commonly employing against victims," Schwartz said.
Sen. Tammy Mulchi (R-Mecklenburg) carried the legislation and said Mecklenburg County's Commonwealth's Attorney brought the issue to her attention after encountering a case where a couple was being harassed by someone the husband knew in high school.
"A couple was targeted by someone that was just delusional — saw a Facebook post about him and his new bride building a home...and she just became obsessed that he was building this home for them," explained Mulchi."She was actually, they found out, in Florida, and she became obsessed and terrorized him and his family, even his parents. And it just became crippling to them and their business by calls, just robo-calls."
Mulchi is a survivor of domestic violence herself and founded a nonprofit, The Windsong Foundation, to help others.
"We're able to help women get out of these situations, get into either shelter that's temporary, but, I have a long term plan that I would like to see that's kind of different from anything in the state," said Mulchi. "It's more of a long-term help for women, where they can come and stay for longer terms."
During the General Assembly special session two weeks ago, Mulchi spoke about the challenges facing domestic violence support groups while addressing the murder of Dr. Cerina Fairfax by her estranged husband, former Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax.
"I'm going to continue to speak up and fight for those people that are not here, like Dr. Fairfax, who doesn't have a voice anymore," Mulchi said on April 23.
"She probably did everything she could to protect her children from it all. And so she took the brunt of protecting the children, making everything look good to the outside, running the household, being both parents," Mulchi said of why she spoke. "I can just feel the weight, personally, of what she probably was doing to do, everything right, and to try to get away in the best way that she knew how, without asking for help. And that, just, is so personal to me. Because I can just feel that and to not get up and say something about that would have been a tragedy to me."
Mulchi also listed how calls to the VSDAA hotline had decreased from 2023 to 2024 (their annual reports said Virginia's network of sexual and domestic violence advocates received 72,831 hotline contacts in 2023 compared to over 68,600 in 2024).
She said that was not because there was a decrease in demand, but because federal funding has been cut in recent years leading to fewer workers in the field and that the state needed to fill the gap.
"This has to be a priority. It's an epidemic," Mulchi said. "We need to not only put money toward intervention, but prevention, and we need to start when children are in school, in elementary school, and teach children that about good relationships."
Mulchi says she is working with a Democratic senator to send a letter to Gov. Abigail Spanberger urging more resources be dedicated to the issue.
Schwartz said their 2025 report showed a 54% decrease in federal funding over the past five years and said that it has had "significant impacts" on the services that local programs can provide.
"If we don't have the funding to be paying advocates and offering services...that's just extremely limiting," Schwartz said.
Schwartz said some of the other issues that her groups hopes to address in the future includes funding support for domestic violence victims to make legal representation affordable and to change what the definition of "family abuse" is.
"We know as practitioners in this field that domestic violence is much more than one act of violence, right? It's a pattern of coercive control and and so like looking to update that definition, I think is, really, is an important thing that we're trying to do in the near future."
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