Research On The Punishability Of Neutral Helping Behavior On The Internet

Neutral helping behavior on the Internet is based on the development of information technology in the cyberspace.The perpetrator does not pursue crimes as the purpose while the help behaviors they provide objectively promote the criminal behavior and criminal results of the principal offender.Similar to the general neutral helping behavior,neutral helping behavior on the Internet also has the characteristics of harmless appearance,daily life,uncertainty of the object of help,and one-sided help.In addition,the behavior itself also has the characteristics of subject specificity,behavior independence,object concealment,and serious consequences,which promotes the occurrence of cyber crimes.According to the types of expressions,the academic circle has a distinction between“three division”and“two division”.The“three division”divides network neutrality assistance into network access services,network content services and network platform services,which is more reasonable.There are two different views on the punishability: general punishment theory and restrictive punishment theory.General punishment theory is gradually abandoned by many scholars because of its drawbacks.Restrictive punishment theory has three different views.They are“subjective theory”,“objective theory”and“compromise theory”.Among the various theories and theories,the compromise theory insists on the subjective and objective comprehensive identification method,which is consistent with the identification of the crime constitution in our country.The compromise theory is more reasonable for limiting the scope of punishment.According to the current world trend,it is necessary and feasible to impose penalties on neutral helping behavior on the Internet.In terms of necessity,punishing this behavior can effectively combat criminal behaviors committed by criminals using help behaviors,thereby curbing the increasingly rampant cyber crimes.In terms of feasibility,neutral helping behavior on the Internet is not absolutely unpunishable.In some specific circumstances,the behavior can still be punished.There are two different viewpoints in the debate over the scope of punishment for net neutrality assistance:“expanding the scope of punishment”and“restricting the scope of punishment”.We should follow the latter point of view as a basis and reasonably restrict the scope of punishment.It is in line with crime punishment legal principle and the principle of modesty.It can promote the innovation and development of network technology.We should not only protect the freedom of network neutral helpers,but also insist on cracking down on Internet crime.This requires us to accurately grasp the best time for criminal law to intervene in punishment,and to find the best balance between the fight against Internet crime and the freedom of action.The neutral helping behavior on the Internet has mainly formed two different punishment modes in our country.The first type of punishability mode advocates that network-neutral help constitutes a helping criminal and should be punished according to the principle of punishment of helping criminals.The second type of punishability mode advocates treating the neutral helping behavior on the Internet as a separate criminal of a certain crime.In addition,the reasons for illegal obstruction can deny the punishability of neutral helping behavior on the Internet.According to the compromise theory insists on judging the punishability from both objective and subjective levels.For the objective level,the principle of objective imputation can be introduced to judge causality.For the subjective level,it should be determined from the cognitive and volitional factors of the criminal intention.The key to the cognitive factor lies in the meaning,content and time limit of“knowingly”.The volitional factor is only punishable when the net neutrality helps the perpetrator know that his actions will cause others to commit crimes,and hope that such crimes will happen.