Cardozo Law Review
Abstract
Part I of this Note lays out the elements and effects of the perpetration of revenge porn. Part I additionally highlights the inadequacies of civil and copyright channels for remedying revenge porn perpetration and sets up the preconditions and justifications for the criminalization of revenge porn. Part II presents an overview of the current state of the criminal revenge porn scheme and analyzes the shortcomings of statutes employing specific intent provisions. Part II posits that vindictive motive clauses do more to hinder victims' access to justice than they do to facilitate it, as they are problematically narrowing, duplicative, and even superfluous from a constitutional standpoint. Part III proposes the ubiquitous adoption of a statute comparable to the Illinois statute, as its lack of a vindictive motive clause, among other redeeming elements, appropriately makes the criminalization of non-consensual porn less about revenge and more about privacy, which more comprehensively imputes liability to those in violation of the law. Part III also suggests that the Illinois legislature amend the statute to include a provision for the use of pseudonyms to ensure confidentiality for victims so as to not re-traumatize them, and so as to incentivize victims to utilize the legal system as a means of relief. This Note recommends that the Illinois statute, which lacks a specific intent clause, be deemed archetypal legislation, notwithstanding its current lack of a pseudonym provision, so as to more strongly deter potential perpetration of revenge porn and better achieve justice for revenge porn victims.
Disciplines
Communications Law | Law | Torts
Recommended Citation
Ava Schein,
When Sharing is Not Caring: Creating an Effective Criminal Framework Free from Specific Intent Provisions to Better Achieve Justice for Victims of Revenge Pornography,
40
Cardozo L. Rev.
1953
(2019).
Available at:
https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/clr/vol40/iss4/10