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The Electronic Spanish Prisoner

Alisdair A Gillespie (2017) — The Journal of Criminal Law

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DOI: 10.1177/0022018317702803 (opens in a new tab)

Type:   Journal Article
Country:   United Kingdom
Tags:   AI-Enabled Fraud, Criminal Law, Grooming, Intimate Images, Law Enforcement, Online Dating, Romance Scams, Sexual Autonomy, Victim Experience, Victim Harm
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Synopsis

            
This doctrinal article examines how English law applies to romance fraud, informed by prior empirical and behavioral research. It compares offender grooming with child grooming, describes grief-like emotional consequences, and assesses possible liability under fraud, sexual-offense, intimate-image, and non-fatal-offense law. The analysis shows that a scheme framed publicly as financial fraud may also involve sexual violation, coercion, image abuse, and serious psychological injury that different legal categories capture unevenly. It is a legal argument and literature synthesis, not a new dataset of victims, offenders, police reports, or cases. Conclusions about victim experience and offender behavior therefore depend on the cited research, while legal conclusions remain specific to the examined English framework.

          

        
                  

            
Identified Gaps

            
The article identifies legal and empirical gaps: no case has specifically tested rape liability in romance-fraud circumstances; the repeal of the 1956 procurement offence may have left a lacuna; current non-fatal offences generally exclude psychological rather than diagnosable psychiatric harm; and little is known about distribution of intimate images acquired during romance fraud. Fraud-centred investigation may also miss sexual-image dissemination and other potential offences.

          

        
                  

            
Methods

            
Doctrinal legal analysis of romance fraud under English law, informed by prior empirical and behavioural research. The article describes reported fraud practices and victim impacts, compares romance fraud with child grooming, and evaluates fraud, sexual-offence, intimate-image, and non-fatal-offence liability. It uses statutory provisions, case law, legal scholarship, and secondary empirical studies to assess whether romance fraud should be treated solely as financial crime.

          

        
                  

            
Limitations

            
The article does not present new empirical data and relies on research conducted by others. Several conclusions are necessarily tentative because no case has specifically considered rape liability in romance fraud, courts have not ruled on some forms of deception in virtual sexual activity, and evidence is limited on what happens to intimate footage. Its principal legal analysis is framed around English law, limiting direct applicability elsewhere.

          

        
                  

            
Future Work

            
Reintroduce a gender-neutral offence of procuring sexual activity through deception, extending beyond intercourse. Courts should sentence romance fraud with regard to emotional abuse rather than financial loss alone. Law enforcement should treat and prioritise romance fraud differently from other frauds. Research is also needed on the extent to which intimate images obtained through romance fraud are distributed.

          

              

    
    

        
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