Online harassment and cyberstalking: a case study
Keywords:
harassment, stalking, hate crimes, hostility, cybercrime, Hostigamiento, acoso, delitos de odio, hostilidad, ciberdelitoAbstract
The evidence from some studies conducted until now reflects that the offenders´ conscious anger and hostility toward the victim is the prevalent motivation behind the unwanted pattern of conduct that alarms and causes distress to another individual. From a legal-criminal perspective, even if a context-sensitive approach is still necessary, this could well amount to harassment or stalking, on a case-by-case basis. Intriguingly, hostility has always been the core term operating in hate crime legislation in England & Wales. Apart from what looks like a coincidence, how does the unhealthy and long-term fixation pattern with an individual intersect with hate crimes? How is the workability of all the above in the virtual environment? We will use R v Joshua Bonehill-Paine (2016), a racially aggravated online harassment case, as a vehicle to illustrate some concerns and broader thematic points of interest.
Según reflejan algunos estudios realizados hasta la fecha, la ira consciente y hostilidad de los agresores hacia la víctima sería la motivación predominante detrás del patrón de conducta no deseada que alarma y causa angustia a otro individuo. Desde una perspectiva jurídico-penal, aunque siga siendo imprescindible realizar una aproximación sensible al contexto, esto bien podría equivaler a hostigamiento (harassment) o acoso (stalking), en función del caso. Curiosamente, la hostilidad siempre ha sido el término central que opera en la legislación sobre delitos de odio en Inglaterra y Gales. Al margen de lo que parece más bien una coincidencia, ¿cómo relacionar el patrón de fijación enfermiza a largo plazo por un individuo con los delitos de odio? ¿Cómo es la operatividad de todo lo anterior en el entorno virtual? Utilizaremos R v Joshua Bonehill-Paine (2016), un caso de hostigamiento online agravado por cuestiones raciales, como vehículo para ilustrar algunas preocupaciones y puntos temáticos de interés más amplios.
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