El mal denominado delito de grooming online como forma de violencia sexual contra menores. Problemas jurídicos y aspectos criminológicos

Abstract

Information and communication technologies, especially the internet, have constituted a new space for criminal opportunity where old illicit behaviors, such as sexual abuse of minors, have managed to move to the digital world. This fact prompted the rise of international norms that urge states to undertake measures against such sexual behaviors. As a consequence, Spain incorporated in 2010 in its criminal legislation the so-called online grooming offense, whose classification has been widely criticized by the doctrine. The main problem seems to be the lack of coherence between the criminological reality of the phenomenon and the legal criminal response to it. This paper aims to is to address certain characteristics about the phenomenon to better understand the deficiencies in the criminal forecast of the so-called online grooming crime