Research on the Criminal Law Regulation Path for Infringement of Virtual Property - Based on the Non Monetary Nature of Virtual Property

Abstract

The term ‘property’ in China’s criminal law includes tangible, intangible, and property interests. Virtual property, as a subjective new type of property with dual attributes of property and debt, is neither tangible nor intangible, nor property interests. Therefore, it does not belong to the term ‘property’ in criminal law and cannot be protected through property crimes. Under current legal norms, the infringement of virtual property should be mainly regulated from the perspective of data crimes. This is a regulatory approach based on traditional criminal law theory for infringement of virtual property, which can better maintain the stability of the current criminal law system; At the same time, it should also be recognized that this type of protection is limited, so we should start to include virtual property in the category of “property” through specialized legislation.