Criminal law and sexting as a form of adolescent online violence in Croatia: normative and empirical findings

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper addresses sexting from an interdisciplinary perspective through a normative analysis of the new criminal offense of the misuse of recordings of sexually explicit content (Art. 144a, CC) introduced in 2021 in the Croatian Criminal Code. Based on the legislative framework and empirical study analysis, we provide conclusions on the adequacy of the existing criminal provisions with implications for future research, and present empirical findings from a 2020 online survey on sexting experiences and risky sexual behaviour with 724 adolescents (Ngirls = 534, 73,8%) aged 14–22. Older adolescents reported significantly higher sexting perpetration. Lower school achievers reported higher sexting victimization. Non-heterosexual participants reported more sexting perpetration. Participants with more sexual partners scored higher for both sexting perpetration and victimization. Sexting perpetration correlated to the group of older adolescents with lower school attainment and academic achievement who reported less family relationships satisfaction. Sexters reported more risky behaviour, higher media use intensity and more sexual knowledge, but less sexual media content exposure. Sexting positively correlated to the number of sexual partners and the relationship duration. Male gender, older age, risky behaviour, higher media use intensity, better general sexual knowledge and the number of sexual partners represented significant predictors of sexting perpetration.