Criminalization of Socially Dangerous Forms of Personal Persecution Committed Through Threats Using Information and Telecommunication Networks

Abstract

The article proposes a solution to the problem of criminalization of socially dangerous forms of persecution of individuals committed through threats using information and telecommunication networks – «cyberbullying». Due to the development of Internet technologies, the emergence of such socially dangerous forms of persecution of an individual, such as the threat of violence, destruction or damage to someone else’s property, dissemination of information discrediting the honor and dignity of an individual, causing other significant harm to the rights or legitimate interests of the victim or his relatives, has reached the level of public danger, which confirms the need for their criminalization. Since for Russia the phenomenon of «cyberbullying» is a relatively new phenomenon, a problem arises with understanding its essence and establishing responsibility for it. The current legislation of the Russian Federation does not fully meet the real criminal situation and does not provide adequate protection of public relations from «cyberbullying».
Purpose of the study: to develop a model for the criminalization of socially dangerous forms of persecution of individuals committed through threats using information and telecommunication networks and to propose the formulation of the corresponding criminal law norm.
Results and key conclusions.
1) A unified approach to the criminalization of socially dangerous forms of persecution of an individual using information and telecommunication networks is applied both in the legislation of foreign countries and in the legislation of neighboring countries.
2) Russian legislation, on the one hand, includes a number of crimes that can be applied to some socially dangerous forms of persecution of an individual using information and telecommunication networks; on the other hand, many norms do not have the qualifying feature «using an information and telecommunication network».
3) Today, Russian criminal legislation needs a criminal law norm regulating liability for the «Threat of harm», which is confirmed by survey data, expert interviews, as well as the lack of practice of initiating criminal cases based on bullying on the Internet. It is necessary to add Article 128.2 «Threat of harm» to Chapter 17 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which will remove the need to criminalize «cyberbullying».