This article sheds a new light on the impact of image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) on women. Drawing on findings from 17 in-depth interviews, it details the emotional, physical and social impact of this online victimisation, and how the impact of IBSA manifests in women’s everyday lives. By also using these findings as a basis to examine online victimisation more broadly, this article brings to the fore broader considerations of how technology is facilitating a mutation in forms of sexual violence causing victims to encounter impacts which are specific to, or amplified by, technology. Therefore, it calls for greater attention to be paid to the impacts of IBSA and more research into how the relationships between the online and offline worlds require us to change our understanding of victimisation in an ever-increasing digital society.
This article offers an in-depth examination of user motivations and misogynistic online cultures drawing on data collected from two websites that openly condone the sharing and viewing of non-consensually shared sexual images. Analysed using a feminist lens, findings show significant cultural differences and motivations for engagement across the two websites indicating that these online spaces should not be understood as homogenous. Findings also demonstrate the increasing ‘pornification’ of these images as they are marketed, traded, and used as commodities. The article also considers how we might contextualize non-consensual image sharing within the broader misogynistic landscape and how male peer support theory and digital criminology can help to understand current, and future, forms of online misogyny.
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