Imbalance Between Cybercrime Punishments with Some of the Corresponding Traditional Crimes

Due to the expansion of cyberspace users, the types of cybercrime have increased day by day and the manner of occurrence of these crimes has become more diverse and advanced. Noting inconclusion of or inefficiency of  the criminal laws governing the traditional crimes, many of the countries worldwide, including Iran, has opted for legislation and enactment of special laws regarding cybercrimes. One of the principles of criminal law is the proportionality of the crime and the punishment and the balance between the punishments in similar crimes. The question that the present article seeks to answer is ‘whether a balance has been abided by between the punishments determined for similar crimes in the traditional and cyber space?’. The research method in this article is descriptive and analytical in terms of collecting library resources and in terms of its content. A comparative study of the punishments for traditional theft and cyber theft, traditional fraud and cyber fraud, and encouraging corruption and prostitution in the traditional space and cyberspace, indicates that the principle of proportionality of crime and punishment and the balance of punishments in similar mentioned crimes have not been observed. Punishments for similar cyberspace crimes are far lighter than the same crimes in the traditional environment, which seems to have no legal justification and requires a review and amendment of the law.