Technology-Facilitated Sexual Violence (TFSV): Analysis of Remedial Provisions under Criminal Laws in India

Cyber crimes related to sexual abuse is a global issue which is spreading very fast with the advancement of communication technology. These offences do not have any particular jurisdiction to control in an area as these crimes are committed in a virtual space called cyber space. These crimes consist of production, creation, storage or transmitting of obscene material or sexually explicit or intimate images or pornographic videos with the uses of any digital or electronic media. Hence these crimes are also termed as technology facilitated sexual violence. Cyberstalking, cyberbullying, voyeurism, revenge porn, child pornography etc. are few examples of online sexual harassment. Laws are enacted to criminalize cyber sexual crimes under various acts but growth rate of cyber sexual crimes are increasing day by day. This study aims to review existing laws on cyber sexual crimes in India and to analyses its effectiveness to control these crimes. For the purpose of this study various literatures including research articles, reports, legislative provisions and news article has been deeply reviewed to find the research gap and possible solution to the problem. Disposal rate of these crimes by police and court has been studied to correlate with the growth rate of cyber sexual crimes. Results of the study shows a strong association of the conviction rate and chargesheet rate with the growth rate of online sexual crimes in India.