Should Online Defamation Be Criminalized
Year: 2007
Type: preprint
Abstract: In 1961 the drafters of the Model Penal Code decided that defamation should not be criminalized, even though libel was a common law crime. They based their decision on two assumptions: One was that defamation does not inflict harm of a severity comparable to rape or murder; the other was that while defamation concededly inflicts a lesser harm, the likelihood of its being inflicted was too slight to justify the imposition of criminal sanctions. This article argues that our increasing use of cyberspace makes the second assumption increasingly problematic, and therefore requires that we revisit the need to criminalize online defamation.
Source: SSRN Electronic Journal
Author: Susan W. Brenner
Institution: University of Dayton
Language: English
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2258371013