Addressing the ‘gender’ in cyberviolence and the ‘cyber’ in gender-based violence within criminal law frameworks: A Call For Synergistic And Multidimensional Solutions In European States

This paper explores the intersection between ‘cybercrime’ and ‘gender-based violence’, recognising ‘gender’ as a central analytical category for understanding the drivers and impact of harmful conduct in cyberspace, where online discrimination not only mirrors but reinforces offline gender hierarchies. Drawing on intersectional scholarship and recent empirical data, the paper shows how women are disproportionately affected by cyber harm and how these offences extend beyond individual wrongs, undermining women’s equal participation in democratic ‘onlife’ (Floridi, 2015). This points towards the adoption of new ‘techno-feminist’ criminological theories, capturing the idiosyncrasies of harmful digital conduct – such as disinhibition, detachment, and amplification – and the gendered power relations that underpin it. Moreover, it requires specific paths to criminalize phenomena with differing disvalue, entangled in a ‘continuum’ (Kelly, 1988) between online and offline violence. Adopting a comparative perspective, the article analyses national responses across European jurisdictions, revealing a fragmented landscape marked by tensions between precaution and paternalism. To date, most forms of cyber gender-based harm remain subsumed under traditional offences and the ‘online dimension’ surfaces merely in judicial interpretation or is treated as an aggravating factor. Moreover, existing provisions – particularly those concerning hate speech – often fail to incorporate a gender-based dimension, thereby obscuring the distinctive seriousness of such harm. Against this background, the paper argues for a more harmonised and proportionate legal framework, grounded in the principle of legality and it advocates a multidimensional approach – combining criminal law with administrative law, cybersecurity, and intersectional equality policies – to ensure effective and equitable responses to ‘cyber gender-based harm’.