About the reach of the purposes of penalties on the criminal phenomenon of cybercrime

Abstract

This study analyses one of the key elements of criminal law: penalty. More specifically, it studies the adequacy of the traditional constructions on the purposes of penalties in the field of cybercrime, a phenomenon with very different criminological characteristics from traditional crime. To this end, after an initial approach to crime in cyberspace, we address its fit in the fundamental postulates of each of the theories of penalties separately in order to draw preliminary conclusions and peculiarities of cybercrime, being aware that these theories provide a critical parameter and not an unequivocal solution to criminal enforcement.