Distant Psychological Violence: Prospects for Improvement of Criminal Legislation

The article researches the legal issues of protection from various forms of distant psychological violence arising in electronic communication. The study aims to assess the public danger of cyber-bullying, cyber-stalking and cyber-harassment among potential and real victims in order to develop recommendations for improvement of domestic legislature. The main results of the study have been obtained by surveying 207 individuals and by means of comparative review of domestic and foreign law. The results indicate that distant violence does take place, but its assessment by legislators and the public is highly controversial. Cyber-harassment is commonly seen as a more dangerous phenomenon than cyber-bullying or cyber-stalking, which raises a question of its criminalization in the law. This necessitates a correct definition of sexual harassment in distant form as there are risks of either intruding into the field of socially acceptable behavior or overlooking the socially unacceptable ones.

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