Introduction
Welcome to this Introduction to Image-Based Sexual Abuse. This book summarises much of what we currently know about this relatively new type of offending behaviour, and guides the reader through key details relating to:
- 1.the impact of offending behaviour on victims;
- 2.variations in related legislation;
- 3.potential motivations for this type of offending;
- 4.how the general public views and understands such crimes; and
- 5.hypotheses related to future research that is needed to be undertaken in this area.
We have designed this book to be as accessible as possible, regardless of the reader’s prior knowledge of image-based sexual abuse, or psychological research more generally. Although we acknowledge that the information within will likely be of particular interest to students and academics in fields of forensic psychology and/or cyberpsychology, we also recognise that this subject matter is both widely discussed in the media, studied by legal experts, and, sadly, experienced day-to-day within the general population. As such, we aimed to ensure that anybody could read the material presented within this book and take something away from it.
Although much of the existing research and discussion related to image-based sexual abuse has taken place in the legal realm (via the work of Professor Clare McGlynn and colleagues, for example), we approach this subject from a social science perspective, and in particular using a psychological lens. Moreover, much of the book focuses on offending behaviour where both the perpetrators and victims are adults. However, we make clear that image-based sexual abuse can be carried out by and on anybody—and the experiences of all victims are valid and important. For further reading about sexual offending involving child victims, for example, please see the work of Michael Seto, and his book Internet Sex Offenders.
Delineation of Terms
Before proceeding, it is essential to disentangle and define some of the terminology featured within the literature. Such knowledge is not only important for you to fully access and understand the material presented throughout this book, but more importantly, so that you can start to critically read and assess the wider literature in this area, as well as articles and stories presented within the press and through social media.
First, we define what we mean by image-based sexual abuse, which is a broad label used to describe a range of behaviours, and emerges from the legal and sociological research domains (see DeKeseredy & Schwartz, 2016; Henry & Powell, 2015a, b; Henry, Powell, & Flynn, 2017; McGlynn, Rackley, & Houghton, 2017). Although it is quite unusual to have to define the key terms that appear in the title of a book, we expect that many of our readers are accessing this material based on their recognition of the colloquial concepts of ‘revenge porn’ or ‘upskirting’. Although such offences are important in their own right, and as such will be discussed throughout this book, and in turn below, ‘image-based sexual abuse’ acts as the umbrella term that encompasses these individual offences. We operationalise image-based sexual abuse by drawing upon McGlynn et al.’s (2017) work, which proposed a continuum of offences involving the non-consensual generation, taking, and/or distribution of private sexual images. However, following our recent work, we adapt this to represent a taxonomic, rather than continuous framework (Harper, Fido, & Petronzi, 2019). This distinction is important, because it means that we do not imply a hierarchy of image-based sexual abuse offences but rather see these as a collection of distinct behaviours, each as important to understand as the next, that gather under this broad legal term. These behaviours are briefly defined in Table 1.1.
Table 1.1
Behaviours considered to be ‘non-consensual sexual image offending’ in this book
Behaviour label | Description |
|---|---|
Revenge pornography | The non-consensual distribution of private, explicit images of an individual without their consent, with the intention to cause harm through embarrassment and/or distress |
Upskirting | The non-consensual and surreptitious capturing of intimate images under an individual’s clothing |
Deepfake media production | Using visual editing software to superimpose the likeness of another onto sexually explicit material |
Cyber-flashing | Sharing sexually explicit images via digital technologies (e.g., text messaging, instant social media, or Bluetooth) to unsuspecting or non-consenting recipients |
Second, before discussing each offence type in detail we would like to spend some time breaking down some of the key terminology which features within the descriptions themselves. The term ‘images’ should be taken to refer to a range of physical or digital media, including photographs, videos, and audio recordings (or any combination of these). Our use of ‘image(s)’ throughout this book is simply a reflection of the popular discourse related to this type of behaviour at the time of writing. The term ‘non-consensual’ can refer to the production (upskirting, deepfake media), distribution (‘revenge pornography’), or sending (cyber-flashing) of such media without the consent of the individual depicted in and/or receiving it. Where the term ‘private’ is used, this relates to the notion that the media in question would not ordinarily be found within the public domain. As we will see in the following sections of this chapter, this distinction of non-consensual production, distribution, or sending plays a key component in some of the legislation pertinent to image-based sexual abuse. Finally, where we use the term ‘sexual’ within this text, we are referring to the person or people depicted in the media being involved in sexual acts, that the media depicts their genitalia and/or buttocks (and/or breasts, in the case of women and girls), and/or that the media is produced or shared for the purposes of sexual gratification. Although this leads to a rather broad framing of the term ‘sexual’, we feel this is necessary in order to fully encompass the depth and breadth of image-based sexual abuse offences, especially as they are often discussed with brevity within social and national media reports.
Through the following sections, we will be explaining the offences of revenge pornography, upskirting, deepfake media production, and cyber-flashing in more detail, and in turn. Moreover, we will be discussing some of the core areas of law across Europe, the USA, and further afield, which pertain to these offences.
Revenge Pornography
‘Revenge pornography’ is the most commonly used term when defining the non-consensual sharing of private sexual images of another person (Ministry of Justice, 2015). Although motivations to offend will be discussed in more detail throughout Chapter 2 of this book, historically, such images were usually uploaded onto dedicated revenge pornography websites (Franks & Keats-Citron, 2014); commonly following the breakdown of a relationship (Dawkins, 2015) and as a means of damaging an ex-partner’s social reputation (Henry & Powell, 2014). Such websites include IsAnyoneUp.com (Visser, 2012), which averaged 150,000–240,000 unique page views per day (Dodero, 2012), and which raised over $13,000 in advertising revenue each month. This site was taken down from the internet in 2012 following a flurry of legal cases being brought...