Sexual Violence in the Digital Age

TLDR

Digital technology crimes have largely focused on hacking, fraud, and child exploitation, while technology‑facilitated sexual violence—using tech to perpetrate or extend sexual assault, control, or distribute non‑consensual images—has received comparatively little attention. The article examines the scope and limits of criminal legislation in addressing these gendered harms. The authors contend that despite some international advances, especially on revenge pornography, more legal and non‑legal measures are needed, calling for broader policy and practice interventions across education, law enforcement, service provision, online communities, and social media to promote ethical digital citizenship.

Abstract

Considerable scholarly attention has been paid to a range of criminal behaviours that are perpetrated with the aid of digital technologies. Much of this focus, however, has been on high-tech computer crimes, such as hacking, online fraud and identity theft, or child exploitation material and cyberbullying. Less attention has been paid to ‘technology-facilitated sexual violence’, where new technologies are used as tools to perpetrate or extend the harm of a sexual assault, extend control and abuse in a domestic violence situation, or distribute sexual or intimate images of another without their consent. In this article, we focus on the scope and limitations of criminal legislation for responding to these varied but interconnected gendered harms. We argue that although there have been some developments in a range of international jurisdictions, particularly relating to the phenomenon of ‘revenge pornography’, much more needs to be done both within and beyond the law. Whilst we support the intervention of the criminal law, we argue that equal attention must be given to policies and practices of educators, law enforcement agencies, service providers, online communities and social media networks to fulfil the promise of equal and ethical digital citizenship.