On 12 May 2022, FRC member, Carlotta Rigotti, will present part of her ongoing PhD reserach during the EU Pop Conference organised by the University of Central Lancashire.
The presentation is entitled 'Penal populism: Some considerations arising from the possible criminalisation of women-like sex robots'.
Abstract: In broad terms, sex robots are human-like machines endowed with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities and programmed to perform emotionally and sexually. Since the launch of the Campaign against the Sex Robots in 2015, the manufacture, sale, and usage of sex robots having a female appearance and behaviour has been brought into question, leading also to a demand for their prohibition. At the heart of this request lies the very idea that women-like sex robots deceive their user, negatively affect their moral character and, above all, commodify women, thereby increasing gender-based discrimination and violence within society.
Against this backdrop, the presentation will see the possible criminalisation of woman-like sex robots in the context of penal populism, that is to say, a legislative strategy meant to restore the weakened authority of the State and capable of affecting crime perception and principles of criminalisation.