Eight months after her sister was murdered by a stalker in January 2000, Cheryl Darisse founded Feel Safe Again Inc., an information and support group for stalk victims.

In recognition of National Stalking Awareness month, Feel Safe Again and Jane Doe Inc. — the Massachusetts Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence — held a conference in support of proposed Senate Bill No. 1002, nicknamed the Stalk Survivor bill, yesterday at the State House.

The new bill would allow stalk survivors to qualify for a protection order against their stalkers and would guarantee criminal punishment for those who violate it. Currently, 19 states, including Massachusetts, do not guarantee protection for stalk survivors.

The proposed legislation is a continuation of “Sandy’s Law,” a law passed in 2000 guaranteeing punishment for those who criminally harass another individual.

Under Sandy’s Law, in order to obtain a criminally enforceable protection order — an order making it a criminal act to violate a restraining order — the victim must prove that they have a substantial, mutual relationship with the stalker.

This loophole leaves many victims with no criminally enforceable protection, said Sen. Pamela Resor (D-Middlesex).

Resor said the current legislation would not protect a neighbor being stalked by another neighbor or a rape victim stalked by the rapist. She said victim advocates in other states have found restraining orders to be “virtually meaningless” without a criminal penalty for violation.

Feel Safe Again, Inc. Vice President Jenifer Fredericksen, a stalk survivor, said stalking is something a victim never fully gets over.

“My life consists of rituals — checking exits, counting steps, watching where I park — and exhausting hyper-vigilance,” she said.

“Getting a restraining order is a scary process and many women go through it alone,” said Cambridge Mayor Denise Simmons, whose daughter was stalked.

Toni Troop, a spokeswoman for Jane Doe, Inc., which provides support services for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, said it is impossible to get a criminally enforceable restraining order if a stalk victim cannot prove a relationship with the stalker.

“Civil restraining orders can only guarantee that stalking won’t be a crime until the order is violated — after it has already been issued,” she said.

“Some victims will never consider themselves a survivor,” Darisse said. She said the effects of stalking include physical, emotional, psychological, physiological and financial scares.

“I truly believe [Sandy’s death] could have been prevented with the vital resources and protection stalking victims so often never receive,” she said.