Private, Hidden and Obscured: Image-Based Sexual Abuse in Singapore

Vitis, Laura

doi:10.1007/s11417-019-09293-0

Cited by 15 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…However, the law has not caught up to the technology in such a way that there are systematic repercussions for perpetrating online abuse. Indeed, inconsistent laws; a lack of resources; evidentiary limitations; jurisdictional boundaries; and victim-blaming or harm minimization attitudes have all been identified as barriers to legal repercussion for image-based sexual abuse perpetration (Vitis, 2019). In the case of a Penn State fraternity's slutpage held on a Facebook group page, to our knowledge no legal repercussions were experienced for any of the fraternity members despite there being criminal charges and a civil lawsuit against them.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 87%

Slutpage Use Among U.S. College Students: The Secret and Social Platforms of Image-Based Sexual Abuse

et al. 2021

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The phenomenon of "slutpages," tied to high schools, fraternities, and the military, used to post, share, and comment on nude and semi-nude images of women, has emerged in mass media. To our knowledge, this is the first study to empirically investigate slutpage use behaviors including: visiting slutpages, posting nude images/videos online without consent, and using a vault app to store/share nude images. We conducted a survey of undergraduate college students attending a large Midwestern university in the U.S., with 1867 respondents (36.4% cis/transgender men, 63.6% cisgender women; 18-24 years old M = 20.39) to determine who is engaging in slutpage use behaviors. Our results showed that younger participants and men were more likely to engage in slutpage use behaviors than older participants and women, especially if they participated in Greek Life or played a team sport for their university. Men in a fraternity or on a team sport visited slutpages and posted nude images/video online without consent more frequently than men outside these groups, or women in general. Drinking alcohol and using pornography more frequently were also associated with slutpage use behaviors. This study provides a new understanding of slutpages as a social form of image-based sexual abuse and informs researchers, educators, and policy makers to expand their inquiry into online sexual experiences and exploitation to include this phenomenon.

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Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 87%

Slutpage Use Among U.S. College Students: The Secret and Social Platforms of Image-Based Sexual Abuse

et al. 2021

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“…Importantly, researchers have brought to the fore the diverse modalities of abuse and their distribution across women's lifeworlds. Research into IBA, for instance, has shown how strangers, intimate partners, ex-partners, acquaintances, and networks have nonconsensually produced, possessed, altered, distributed, and threatened to distribute women's intimate images for the purposes of harm, humiliation, profit, and control (Henry, Powell, & Flynn, 2017;Powell et al, 2019;Vitis, 2020a). This literature has also highlighted how women are subject to unsolicited pictures of men's genitals across various mediated contexts (Hayes & Dragiewicz, 2018).…”

Section: Technology and Violence Against Womenmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Within these wider studies there has been no exploration to date of the ways in which technology shapes VAW. Despite this, recent research, court/news reports, and reports from a local women's organization demonstrate that IBA, such as CSV and threats to distribute intimate images, has become a prominent issue in Singapore (AWARE, 2019a;Vitis, 2020a). Since 2004, men across Singapore have been prosecuted for using phones and spy cameras to record underneath women's clothes in public spaces like Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations and shopping centers (Vitis, 2020).…”

Section: Technology-facilitated Violence Against Women In the Singaporean Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The prominence of IBA has been affirmed in Vitis, Joseph, and Mahadevan's (2017) review of case file data from the Sexual Assault Care Centre (SACC), which found that in 2016, 18% of client reports involved the use of technology to either facilitate or record violence. Of these 60 cases, 29 involved IBA incidents including the nonconsensual distribution of intimate images; threats to distribute intimate images; and CSV (Vitis, 2020a). Additionally, in 2019, the SACC found that of the 124 client reports involving technology, more than 50% involved IBA (AWARE, 2019a).…”

Section: Technology-facilitated Violence Against Women In the Singaporean Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Technology-Facilitated Violence Against Women in Singapore: Key Considerations

Vitis¹

2021

The Emerald International Handbook of Technology-Facilitated Violence and Abuse

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Technology-Facilitated violence against women (TFVW) is readily becoming a key site of analysis for feminist criminologists. The scholarship in this area has identified online sexual harassment, contact-based harassment, imagebased abuse, and gender-based cyberhateamong othersas key manifestations of TFVW. It has also unpacked the legal strategies available to women seeking formal justice outcomes. However, much of the existing empirical scholarship has been produced within countries like the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, and there has been limited research on this phenomenon within South East Asia. As such, this chapter maps how technology is shaping Singaporean women's experiences of gendered, sexual, and domestic violence. To do so, it draws upon findings from a research project which examined TFVW in Singapore by utilizing semistructured interviews with frontline workers in the fields of domestic and sexual violence and LGBT services. Drawing from Dragiewicz et al.'s (2018) work on Technology-Facilitated coercive control (TFCC), I argue that victims-survivors of dating, domestic, and family violence need to be provided with support that is TFCC informed and technically guided. I also suggest that further research is needed to fully understand the prevalence and nature of TFVW in the Singaporean context.

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“…This is problematic as the line between traditional (physical) and online offending is becoming increasingly blurred (Bluett-Boyd et al 2013;Reed et al 2016) and criminal investigations and prosecutions are becoming highly reliant on reliable and credible digital evidence that can be used in court. Moreover, unlike traditional personal crimes such as physical and sexual assault, cyber-enabled personal crimes are characterised by technical competency (Yar 2005), trans-territoriality (Baym 2015) and high concealment (Pittaro 2007;Vitis 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crime script analysis for adult image-based sexual abuse: a study of crime intervention points for retribution-style offenders

O'Hara

Mazerolle

et al. 2020

Crime Sci

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Objective This research uses crime scripts to understand adult retribution-style image-based sexual abuse (RS-IBSA) offender decision-making and offending in offline and online environments. We explain the crime-commission process of adult RS-IBSA and identify crime intervention points at eight crime script stages. Methods Publicly released court transcripts of adult RS-IBSA prosecution cases (n = 18) in New Zealand from 2015 to 2018 were utilised to examine the crime-commission process of adult RS-IBSA. We analysed the court transcripts thematically at offence-level prior to constructing the crime scripts. Findings The study identified four types of adult RS-IBSA acts including the non-consensual dissemination of a victim’s intimate images, violent cyber sextortion, covert intimate photography, and unauthorised access of a victim’s phone/media. From our analysis, we identified three script tracks and constructed three distinct crime scripts: (1) threats, sextortion and dissemination; (2) unauthorised access of a victim’s mobile device and dissemination; and (3) covert intimate filming. We highlight areas for potential intervention for law enforcement agencies and policy makers to increase deterrence and personal security in online and offline spaces. Conclusion Adult RS-IBSA occurs in a range of dating and domestic contexts. This study develops crime scripts for adult RS-IBSA and advances our understanding of how the Internet/smartphones/digital media translates into virtual crime scenes with opportunities for maximum harm infliction. We offer several policy implications including revising current RS-IBSA legislation and supporting law enforcement agencies with policing online and offline intimate relationship spaces through situational prevention.

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Private, Hidden and Obscured: Image-Based Sexual Abuse in Singapore

Cited by 15 publications

References 32 publications

Slutpage Use Among U.S. College Students: The Secret and Social Platforms of Image-Based Sexual Abuse

Slutpage Use Among U.S. College Students: The Secret and Social Platforms of Image-Based Sexual Abuse

Technology-Facilitated Violence Against Women in Singapore: Key Considerations

Crime script analysis for adult image-based sexual abuse: a study of crime intervention points for retribution-style offenders

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