REWRITING ARIZONA'S REVENGE PORN STATUTE TO FILL THE GAP IN SEX CRIME PUNISHMENT.

As it currently stands in Arizona, revenge porn is a crime that is both under-deterred and under-punished. Nonconsensual pornography, more widely known as "revenge porn," is when a person discloses or distributes sexual images of another person without their consent. Without any changes in the legal landscape, this sex crime will continue to rise unchallenged, especially as technological innovations increase over time. Thus, this Comment argues that the statute criminalizing revenge porn in Arizona needs to be amended in order to increase punishment, fill gaps in criminal liability, and more effectively deter future perpetration. To achieve this end, this Comment demonstrates that Arizona can amend its statute on revenge porn by borrowing provisions from sexual assault laws, child pornography laws, and revenge porn laws from other states. By borrowing provisions from these analogous crimes, the punishment for perpetration of revenge porn will better fit the crime. Other scholars have written about this topic in terms of federal criminalization, First Amendment discourse, and civil liabilities. However, this Comment takes a new approach by working to address underlying problems in the current statutory framework, and rectifying those problems by introducing new terms to the statute that will round out the state's approach to the crime. Without an adaptive and modern approach to the problem, the issues involved with the crime of revenge porn will only get worse as time moves on. By adopting more powerful and comprehensive provisions now, Arizona could be the trendsetter for a national movement to criminalize and deter revenge porn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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