200+ sentenced since new revenge porn laws introduced

During the 2015-2016 year ending in March, a total of 206 people were prosecuted utilising new ‘revenge porn' laws introduced at the start of last year. This comes out of a Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) report, which looks at many aspects of sexual offences against men and women.

A big reason for this happening at all, is because of the introduction of the new legislation. Before it was enacted, going after those who released explicit images of a person without their permission was rather difficult. Copyright law could be used in the case of the victim having taken the picture themselves, but if not, finding a legal action that would stick wasn't easy.

Now though it's a crime to post sexual pictures or video without someone's consent and can even be considered an offence to share those images privately as well.

Mass leaks like The Snappening, are still difficult to prosecute. Source: Maurizio Pesce/Flickr

This, according to the quoted analyst by the BBC, Danny Shaw, is a sign of a change in the way people view sexual crimes. What once was domestic disputes between couples, can now be considered date rape or domestic violence. What once was more of a case of ‘just don't take the pictures,' are now revenge porn laws.

The only problem we're told, is that with the CPS expanding its focus to look at these crimes more closely, resources are being stretched thin and there's a question about whether police forces can cope with the new influx of sexual crimes.

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KitGuru Says: Although the CPS is seeing success, it may be harder for it to go after those who publish images on international sites, since those entities do not necessarily fall under the right jurisdiction. Cooperation may be needed with other countries, as well as social networking services, to really clamp down on revenge porn.

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