Anonymous Complicity: Research on the Criminal Psychological Mechanism and Criminal Law Imputation System of Incitement Behaviors in Cyberbullying

Abstract

With the popularization of online social platforms, cyberbullying incidents have shown an upward trend, among which the behaviors of inciters significantly promote the escalation of violence. Judicial practice faces challenges such as vague definition of subjective viciousness and difficulty in proving causation when identifying the liability of cyberbullying inciters. Inciters often have the characteristics of herd mentality and disinhibition, and the spread of their remarks will produce an obvious "snowball effect". The existing norms have overly general standards for identifying subjective intent in criminal law imputation, making it difficult to accurately distinguish between direct intent and indirect intent, leading to frequent sentencing imbalances. To improve the legislative system, it is suggested to construct an evaluation model for the degree of criminal psychological viciousness, incorporate factors such as criminal motivation and continuity of behavior into sentencing considerations, and learn from the red flag principle to strengthen platform review responsibilities. Establish quantitative standards for "serious circumstances" and clarify the determination boundary of inciting remarks through judicial interpretation, so as to effectively curb the spread of cyberbullying while protecting freedom of speech, and provide an operable theoretical basis for judicial organs to handle new types of cyberbullying cases.