Penal Policy on Combatting the Offense of Contacting a Minor Via ICT Systems and Telecommunications Networks in Poland

Abstract The material scope of the research problem in the text encompasses selected issues concerning the content and sense of the elements characterizing the offense of establishing contact with a minor via ICT systems and telecommunications networks (also referred to as “grooming”) under Polish criminal law. In the legislation currently in force the offense of grooming is criminalized under Art. 200a §1–2 of the Criminal Code. The main purpose of the analysis is to perform a substantive criminal examination of the offense of grooming under Polish law, taking into account a practical case study. The analysis contained in the text is chiefly an overview, and includes mainly an institutional and legal analysis performed with the aid of textual, functional and doctrinal interpretations, which have been supplemented with the author’s own conclusions and opinions concerning de lege lata and de lege ferenda solutions. The institutional and legal analysis has been supplemented with an abstract case study of grooming. The presented abstract case study is helpful in considering selected legal problems, and ultimately in presenting example legal classifications of the described acts referred to as grooming.