REVENGE OR COERCIVE PORNOGRAPHY – A NEW CRIMINALIZATION OF GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE IN CONTEMPORARY CRIMINAL LEGISLATION

Abstract

Based on international documents, as we l as the views of legal theory, criminal liability and punishability for a new incrimination within the framework of gender-based violence against women or girls have been established in European criminal legislation in recent years. This offense is referred to as “revenge or coercive pornography.” It is an incrimination directed against an individual’s personal freedom (privacy), that is, against his or her sexual freedom. With the increasingly widespread use of modern computer and information technologies, cases of their misuse have emerged in various ways, resulting in violations of sexual dignity, personal freedom, and the privacy of another person or multiple persons. Accordingly, certain criminal legislations in our region already recognize this incrimination, including those of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, and North Macedonia. In the Republic of Serbia, the introduction of a similar incrimination is expected under the title “Misuse of a recording, photograph, portrait, audio recording, or written material with sexually explicit content.” These materials may have been created with the consent of the injured party, but are subsequently made available to other persons without authorization. Based on international standards and comparative legal solutions, this paper analyzes the content, characteristics, constitutive elements, and forms of manifestation of this incrimination, as we l as the possibility of its introduction into the legal system of the Republic of Serbia.