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The emergence of new interactions, notably those online, has led to the parallel development of criminal behaviors—not all of which are captured by the current legal framework. This article addresses the challenge posed to criminal law by the emergence of technologically facilitated violence, specifically its sexualized online forms. In particular, it argues for cautious yet specific criminalization of violent behaviors online whilst considering the broader criminal liabilities of all actors involved in the facilitation and perpetration of digital sexual violence. This article draws upon national—contentious—examples of attempts to regulate disruptive sexual violence perpetrated through digital means, with particular attention given to provisions in the UK, Germany, and France.

In 2020, the Scottish Government published the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill. This legislation marks the most recent attempt to "reform" hate crime law in Scotland. Reform suggestions included adding a gender aggravator to the hate crime framework so as to capture instances of gender-based hate. The draft Bill instead left aside the issue of gender/sex-based hate, with government proposals focussing on a proposed stand-alone offence of misogynistic harassment.\ud \ud This article analyses the omission of gender in Scots hate crime including in the 2020 draft Bill—and assesses the proposed stand-alone offence of misogynistic harassment. In so doing, it highlights the shortcomings of the proposed legislation, outlining the significant implications for women of a continued failure to capture gender within the hate crime framework in Scots law.

R v Nimmo and Sorley changed the perception of social media offences in England and Wales. The decision followed a short – but significant – period whereby social media abuses such as trolling and harassment, although increasing in number, often remained outside of the focus of the criminal law. This decision saw the first custodial sentences issued to the defendants for their sustained abusive messages made via social media platform Twitter to two women – Caroline Criado Perez and Stella Creasy – for campaigning to have women on banknotes.\ud \ud It was the first decision handed down under the revised guidance on social media prosecutions from the Director of Public Prosecutions issued in light of Chambers v DPP. Without doubt, R v Nimmo and Sorley is a legal landmark in the prosecution of social media offences. However, it is also a legal landmark for women because this decision represents an important step forward in the recognition and tackling of online harassment, abuse and other forms of threatening behaviour, from which women continue to suffer disproportionately.

Online multi-user platforms like World of Warcraft and Twitter have one common regulatory mechanism; the End-User License Agreement (EULA). This document forms the cornerstone of the regulatory system within each of these spaces. Yet it is regularly contravened by users and providers alike. These agreements are very often the only forms of control or regulation that are present in online environments and therefore control more than user behaviour. Yet these platforms also share another feature: virtual disputes, but these are no longer confined online. Threats of violence and other criminal offences arise too, with examples including the abuse issued to Criado-Perez, and more recently, Flipovic. Criado-Perez suffered Twitter abuse and Flipovic was victimised on online message boards. Cyberspace was once deemed to be free from governmental control but the increasing disputes suggest there is now a need to consider how users of spaces such as online games, virtual worlds and social media are protected. Is it fair and practical to leave regulation to EULAs? How do users achieve redress for wrongs – through online and in-site governance mechanisms or wider controls? This work will consider some of these issues, and will suggest that there is now a need for additional layers of regulation to fill the ‘responsibility gap’ left between EULAs and the offline legal mechanisms.

Submission of Evidence on Online Violence Against Women to the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Its Causes and Consequences, Dr Dubravka Šimonović. The submission of evidence falls on the 3 questions posed by the UN Special Rapporteur http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/SRWomen/Pages/OnlineViolence.aspx. The focus of this evidence rests upon the legal landscape within the multiple jurisdictions that comprise the UK, and pays particular attention to the legal landscape within the UK, text-based misogynistic abuse, harm, and the thresholds for criminal prosecutions.&nbsp

This submission responds to the Independent Review of Hate Crime Legislaiton in Scotland https://consult.gov.scot/hate-crime/independent-review-of-hate-crime-legislation/. The evidence in this submission is exclusively focussed on consideration of online hate and, more specifically, suggests that online misogyny should be viewed as a form of online hate. As such, this submission does not aim to answer all of the questions posed by the Review. Rather, the evidence presented here focuses on selected aspects of the consultation: 1) Online Hate Crime (Chapter 6), and 2) The Extension of the Law to Other Groups (Chapter 8).

Online interactive environments like World of Warcraft, Second Life, Habbo and The Sims Online are international entities, attracting users across the globe. They have one common regulatory mechanism; the End User License Agreement (EULA). This contractual document forms the cornerstone of the regulatory and governing system within each of these distinct spaces. Yet the EULA is regularly contravened by users and the game provider alike, suggesting it is neither fit for purpose, nor adequately designed for these online spaces. The EULA forms not only the contractual relationship between the service provider and the end-user, but is also intended to control the behaviour of the users in the relevant online environment. These are very often the only forms of control or regulation that are present in online environments, and therefore control more than user behaviour.\ud \ud Despite this, there is no specific set of ‘virtual laws’ in these online environments yet the disputes arising from these environments are becoming increasingly common. There are online / offline boundaries, and different levels of controlling mechanisms. These boundaries are only one dimension of the control required in these spaces. Code is protected by copyright, and copyright is allocated by contracts. As such, there is an inter-dependent core which sees code, copyright and contract allocating not just property rights and intellectual property rights but adjudicating on disputes. In this relationship, there are different levels which combine to produce a situation whereby contract is dominant. This paper will consider the current layers of control in online gaming environments in light of some examples of legal disputes that have arisen. It will consider the Magic Circle theory and the Theory of Interration – and potential modifications in light of Tseng’s suggestions but also in context of disputes and the layers currently in place before suggesting that there is perhaps a chasm in this system of layered governance and control.

Specialized teacher preparation programs are graduating teachers with commitments to advocacy. This expanded definition of teaching stands in opposition to traditional expectations for the role of teachers that have developed during the history of U.S. education into organizational and social frames that reinforce tradition and work against reform. These influences constitute forces of professional weathering that may wear down teachers? visions and actions for their work. This multicase study focused on four graduates from an intensive two-year teacher preparation program that included initial certification along with induction support in the second year of the program as they completed master?s degree requirements. The inquiry sought to understand how they envisioned their roles as teacher advocates and how they enacted and sustained their visions, resisting traditional teacher roles. Participants were graduates of the same cohort of the preparation program who were completing their second year of teaching in urban high-need schools and who had been nominated and confirmed as effective teachers of diverse students by faculty members of the university program and of local schools. Program materials were analyzed as background material to establish context. Primary data that were inductively and iteratively analyzed included extant course assignments, three individual interviews with each participant, three school-related observations, and three focus group interviews. Findings provide insight into the ways in which the teachers enacted a vision of anticipatory advocacy. Anticpatory advocacy includes intervening actions that are the result of a dual awareness of students? immediate and future needs and have implications beyond boundaries of time and space in an effort to positively influence students? lives in the immediate as well as distant future. The teachers, each of whom held beliefs that aligned with the culturally relevant foundations of the program prior to their selection, employed tools related to responsive classroom management, ambitious teaching strategies, and professional collaboration that they acquired and honed during their program. By working backward from the classrooms of effective teachers, the study links classroom practices with teacher preparation, providing direction for stakeholders concerned with the development and retention of high quality teachers for all children, especially in challenging school contexts.

Campaigns to make misogyny a hate crime are prevalent, but such claims confuse the situation, and detract from the core issues. Suggestions that misogyny and hate are interchangeable are unhelpful, and such suggestions miss the nuance and holistic understanding that this area of law requires. To suggest that misogyny be a hate crime misrepresents the challenges of misogyny and misogynistic prejudice. As such, this paper outlines the challenge posed by misogyny online, and argues that it poses a significant participatory challenge for life in a digital society and represents a significant obstacle to equality. In making this argument, the impact of online misogyny is given unique consideration, situating misogyny within the gender equality framework.

Online violence against women operates – in an increasingly digital society – as an obstacle to gender equality. The 2018-2023 CoE Gender Equality Strategy sets a benchmark for the initiatives and policy changes across Europe to achieve gender equality. The strategy not only recognizes that ‘violence and sexual harassment of women in public space are strongly condemned [by the Istanbul Convention]’ but also notes a number of obstacles to gender equality which are rooted in online behaviours such as violent and degrading online content (including violent sexual threats online) and sexist online hate speech. Most recently, the EU Parliament highlighted the need to tackle online forms of VAW, including online misogyny and online harassment. \ud \ud Despite growing recognition at the European supranational level that violence against women is increasingly happening online, few steps have been taken in terms of law and policy making to combat these practices in a meaningful and cohesive way. In particular, limited attention has been paid to textual threats, harassment, and text-based abuse online, with the emphasis of legislators and policy makers falling predominantly on online image-based sexual abuse. Furthermore, fragmented approaches across European institutions and across EU member states compound this problem resulting in the current policy framework embodying the antithesis of equality when it comes to OVAW. \ud \ud This article critically examines the shortcomings of the current approaches to law and policy, highlighting the failings to date in enacting changes to address gender inequality at the European supranational level. It concludes by proposing practical solutions to addressing OVAW, especially online forms of gender-based harassment and hate speech.

The rise of online feminist activism has been a catalyst for driving attention globally to issues concerning women and their everyday experiences of violence and harassment, both online and offline. The Internet, and in particular social media platforms, have also been places of political struggle and protest for many women who otherwise would have been unable to speak out about public and political issues. At the same time, women who participate in these online fora face various forms of violence—predominantly text-based—including online misogyny. Such acts severely affect women’s rights to equal participation in the public sphere, taken here to include the online public sphere, on an equal basis with men. Drawing on examples of online violence against women in politics (OVAWP), this paper examines the phenomena of online violence against women (OVAW) and online misogyny. It argues that both forms of abuse of women create significant obstacles to women’s equal participation in public and political life, while also affecting women’s rights to freely express their views. Finally, this paper considers the implications of online misogyny and OVAW generally for digital feminism.