Cybercrimes
It’s Torture for the Soul: The Harms of Image-Based Sexual Abuse.
Open Access: Yes.
Abstract
Beyond ‘scandals’ and the public testimonies of victim-survivors, surprisingly little is known about the nature and extent of the harms of ‘image-based sexual abuse’, a term that includes all non-consensual taking and/or sharing of nude or sexual images. Accordingly, this article examines the findings from the first cross-national qualitative study on this issue, drawing on interviews with 75 victim-survivors of image-based sexual abuse in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. We adopt a feminist phenomenological approach that permits more nuanced and holistic understandings of victim-survivors’ experiences, moving beyond medicalised, trauma-based accounts of harm. Our analysis develops five interconnected accounts of the harms experienced, that we have termed social rupture, constancy, existential threat, isolation and constrained liberty. Our findings shed new light on the nature and significance of the harms of image-based sexual abuse that emphasises the need for more comprehensive and effective responses to these abuses.
Relevance
“After Anna described in detail the impact of having sexual images of her shared without her consent, she summed up her whole experience by saying: ‘It’s torture for the soul, it really is’. This evocative metaphor encapsulates the all-encompassing, ongoing and often devastating harms which some victim-survivors experience and which has yet to be fully recognised. Thus, while criminal laws and policies have been introduced with the aim of challenging image-based sexual abuse, understanding of the harms of these behaviours has so far been limited and often somewhat reductive. This lack of recognition, of the extent and nature of the potential harms of image-based sexual abuse, can be understood as a form of hermeneutical injustice for victim-survivors…In other words, because the harms of image-based sexual abuse are not sufficiently recognised, victim-survivors struggle to understand, narrate and name their experiences. Many participants in our study knew that their own experiences had been profoundly devastating, but struggled to make sense of that in a society where such acts of abuse are so often excused, minimised and normalised.”
“Accordingly, we have suggested that a feminist phenomenological approach can help us to better understand and recognise a fuller range of victim-survivors’ experiences. In particular, we identified five main themes that we termed social rupture, constancy, existential threat, isolation and constrained liberty.”
Citation
McGlynn, C., Johnson, K., Rackley, E., Henry, N., Gavey, N., Flynn, A., & Powell, A. (2021). ‘It’s Torture for the Soul’: The Harms of Image-Based Sexual Abuse. Social & Legal Studies, 30(4), 541-562. https://doi.org/10.1177/0964663920947791
