Child pornography

Abstract

The abuse of children for pornographic purposes is a serious sociological, criminological and victimological problem of today which, despite all preventive and restrictive activities on an international level, shows a tendency of global expansion. The fact that the Republic of Serbia has only recently actively joined the fight against child pornography on the Internet indicates the need for critical analysis of the existing national, penal, and legal solutions and their harmonization with the international legislation. Within this context, besides elaboration on definition of the term and framework of child pornography, the authors are going to reflect on the progressive phenomenology of this type of criminal acts. Hence this paper will describe the problem of virtual pornography, substituent’s of pedophile gratification in the framework of “ pre-teen modeling” sites as well as the attempts of penal and legal regulative of this area, primarily the U.S.A. Finally, as the problem of incriminating possession of child pornography often carries conflicting stands in scientific arguments, the paper will include a proposal of amendments of the Criminal Act of the Republic of Serbia which regulates this matter, and according to the comparative legal solutions and consequential criminological implications.

Keywords

• child pornography
• internet
• high-tech crime