网络暴力行为是个人或群体通过网络传播不道德、煽动性以及攻击性信息，持续地针对特定个人或群体实施侵害的行为。网络暴力行为主要分为网络语言暴力行为、网络诽谤行为、人肉搜索行为三类，“暴力”的特征主要在于语言数量的规模性、语言内容的攻击性以及攻击行为的盲目性。网络暴力的发生意味着“信息流”阻断机制的失效，信息生成阶段监管不力、信息传播阶段引导不足、信息施害阶段制裁不严，是网络暴力的制度成因。而互联网催生的群体极化、自由思潮下的权力异化、资本扩张中人的原子化是更为深刻的社会原因。

刑法的谦抑性要求其扮演最后法、补充法的角色，引入刑法规制需首先论证规制的必要性。刑法的目的与任务是保护法益，法益侵害性是犯罪认定的实质标准，而三类网络暴力行为会损害他人的名誉、隐私等法益，具有法益侵害性。民法、行政法等措施无法有效规制网络暴力行为，尤其对严重网络暴力行为的规制存在失位，因此，以刑法规制网络暴力行为确有必要。

同时，利用现有罪名规制网络暴力行为存在现实困境。我国当前试图利用侮辱罪、诽谤罪、侵犯公民个人信息罪分别规制三类网络暴力，但由于条文设置与网络暴力行为模型的差异，行为认定困难。主要体现在非以“暴力或其他方式”实施的网络语言暴力无法被认定为侮辱罪等罪名、非以“暴力或其他方式”实施的网络诽谤无法被认定为诽谤罪等罪名、侵犯信息数量小获益少的人肉搜索无法被认定为侵犯公民个人信息罪等罪名。强行适用可能会违背罪刑法定原则和罪刑相适应原则。

为此，可设置网络暴力罪以填补规制空白。信息时代下，网络空间各类法益的重要性愈发凸显，通过现有罪名的合理解释无法实现有效保护，此时设置网络暴力罪符合刑法谦抑性的要求，也是顺应社会发展、秉持积极刑法观的体现。完善的立法程序、丰富的释法途径在新罪名设置的同时可保障刑法的稳定性。单独设立网络暴力罪，也有利于实现对三类网络暴力行为的一般预防和特殊预防，更好地保障公民权利和公民自由。网络暴力罪的定位是一项轻罪，有助于实现网络空间的分层治理，贯彻罪刑法定原则。网络暴力罪置于侮辱罪、诽谤罪之后，客体及主观方面基本相同，客观方面网络暴力罪的要求更低，分别依据三类网络暴力的行为模型设置，主体方面要求承担组织者或积极参加者的角色。在设置新罪名后，需特别注意新旧罪名的衔接，分别搭建网络语言暴力行为、网络诽谤行为、人肉搜索行为的适用罪名体系，厘清罪与非罪、此罪与彼罪之间的界限，实现对网络暴力行为的有效规制。

Cyber violence is a behavior that an individual or group disseminates immoral, inflammatory and offensive information through the Internet and continues to target specific individuals or groups.  Cyber violence is mainly divided into three categories: network language violence, network defamation and human flesh search. The characteristics of "violence" mainly lie in the scale of language quantity, the aggression of language content and the blindness of attack behavior.  The occurrence of cyber violence means the failure of the blocking mechanism of "information flow", which is the institutional cause of cyber violence.  However, the group polarization induced by the Internet, the alienation of power under the trend of free thought, and the atomization of human beings in the expansion of capital are more profound social reasons.  

The modesty of criminal law requires it to play the role of final law and supplementary law.  The purpose and task of criminal law is to protect the interests of law, and the infringement of the interests of law is the substantive standard for the determination of a crime. However, the three types of cyber violence will seriously damage the reputation of others, privacy and other legal interests, so the cyber violence has serious infringement of the interests of law.  The exhaustion of civil law, administrative law and other measures can not effectively govern network violence, especially for serious cyber violence, there is a loss of place. Therefore, it is necessary to regulate network violence by criminal law.  

At the same time, there are practical difficulties in regulating network violence with existing charges.  At present, we try to use the crime of insult, the crime of libel and the crime of infringing on citizens' personal information to regulate the three types of online violence respectively, but it is difficult to identify the behavior because of the difference between the provisions and the behavior model of online violence.  This is mainly reflected in the fact that the online language violence not carried out by "violence or other means" cannot be identified as the crime of insult, the online slander not carried out by "violence or other means" cannot be identified as the crime of libel, and the human flesh search which infringes on the small amount of information and gains little cannot be identified as the crime of violating citizens' personal information.  Forced application may violate the principle of legality and adaptation of crime and punishment.  

Therefore, the crime of network violence can be set up to fill the regulatory gap.  In the information age, the importance of various legal interests in cyberspace is becoming increasingly prominent, and effective protection cannot be achieved through reasonable explanation of existing crimes. At this time, setting up the crime of cyber violence conforms to the modesty of criminal law, and also reflects the social development and the positive view of criminal law.  Perfect legislative procedure and abundant ways of interpretation can guarantee the stability of criminal law while setting up new charges.  The separate establishment of the crime of cyber violence is also conducive to the realization of the general prevention and special prevention of the three types of cyber violence, so as to better protect the freedom and rights of citizens.  The crime of cyber violence is a minor crime, which is conducive to the stratification of crimes in cyberspace and the implementation of the principle of statutory punishment.  The crime of online violence is placed after the crime of insult and libel, except for the objective aspect, the constitutive elements are basically the same, the objective aspect has lower requirements, respectively according to the behavior model of the three types of online violence.  After the establishment of new charges, special attention should be paid to the connection between the old and new charges, and the applicable charge system of online language violence, online defamation and human flesh search should be set up respectively to achieve effective regulation of online violence.