Criminal policy on child and adolescent sexual cybercrime in colombia

Abstract

The issue of sexual abuse of children and adolescents in Colombia fails to show improvement. Instead, the number of punishable actions committed is constantly rising, intensified in the evolving cyberspace, where sexual cybercrimes imply new challenges. This article seeks to establish whether or not the current legal criminal policy of the Colombian State is sufficient to address this emerging problem. It analyzes cyberspace as a new scenario and offers an elementary list of the main behaviors constituting sexual cybercrimes. In conclusion, it establishes the need for a new paradigm of criminal policy that proposes strategies in which prevention, not punitive populism, is the primary measure to address this problem, reflected in economic and social policy.