Online Gendered Violence Victimization Among Adults: Prevalence, Predictors and Psychological Outcomes.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence, age and gender differences, and psychological outcomes (anxiety, depression and self-esteem) related to being a victim of different forms of online gendered violence (OGV), namely: digital sexual harassment; physical appearance-based violence; gender role-based violence; and anti-feminism violence. METHOD: 2,471 respondents (71.1 % women) aged 18-79 years ( = 27.28, = 10.08) completed self-report measures. RESULTS: The results showed that 82.6 % of respondents had experienced at least one form of OGV in the last 12 months. The most frequent form of OGV was digital sexual harassment (66.7%), followed by physical appearance-based violence (60.7%), anti-feminism violence (60.7%) and gender role-based violence (25.4%). OGV was significantly higher among women (88%) than men (68.6%), as well as among younger adults. Finally, the results showed that these forms of violence were associated with worse psychological outcomes, especially for younger respondents and for women. CONCLUSIONS: OGV is a common phenomenon that may be related to lower psychological well-being. This study provides relevant information that can shape the design of prevention and intervention programs for this form of digital violence.

"You're just constantly on alert": Women and Gender-Diverse People's Experiences of Sexual Violence on Public Transport.

Sexual violence is a public health issue that can be experienced across the life course. Public transport is a key site of sexual violence and harassment experienced by women and gender-diverse people in Australia, although victim-survivor voices have rarely been sought in addressing this issue. Through in-depth qualitative interviews with 41 diverse female and gender-diverse victim-survivors who were staff or students at two Australian universities, we sought to understand their experiences of sexual violence and harassment on public transport. We found that women and gender-diverse people, while often reporting on a significant experience of sexual violence or harassment on public transport, also had other, "everyday" experiences across their life course that impacted how they traveled and their confidence in the world. Overall, we argue that the significant impact of sexual violence and harassment on public transport should be addressed through targeting public transport as a key site for primary prevention of sexual violence and harassment.

Image-Based Sexual Abuse as a Means of Coercive Control: Victim-Survivor Experiences.

Scholars and practitioners increasingly acknowledge the ways that abusive partners create, distribute, or threaten to distribute intimate images without consent, yet little empirical research has comprehensively explored image-based sexual abuse within intimate partner contexts. This article responds to this gap and reports on the findings of a study involving interviews with 29 women and one gender-diverse person who experienced image-based sexual abuse as part of a pattern of "coercive control." The authors argue that abusive partners use intimate imagery as a means of exerting power and control, and as a tactic of intimidation, entrapment, and degradation. They note that law, policy, and practice responses should recognize the gendered nature of image-based sexual abuse and its growing use as a means of coercive control.

Technology-Facilitated Domestic Violence Against Immigrant and Refugee Women: A Qualitative Study.

Digital technologies are increasingly being used as tools for the perpetration of domestic violence. Little empirical research to date has explored the nature and impacts of technology-facilitated domestic violence (TFDV), and even less attention has been paid to the experiences of immigrant and refugee women. This article examines the nature and impacts of TFDV as experienced by immigrant and refugee women. Drawing on interviews with 29 victim-survivors and 20 stakeholders, we argue that although immigrant and refugee women may experience TFDV in similar ways to non-immigrant and refugee women, they face unique challenges, such as language barriers, cultural bias from support services, lack of financial resources, lack of trust in state institutions, and additional challenges with justice and migration systems. Immigrant and refugee women also face multiple structural layers of oppression and social inequality. Accordingly, we argue that a multifaceted approach is required to address TFDV that includes culturally sensitive and specific law reform, education, and training.

Technology-Facilitated Domestic and Sexual Violence: A Review.

This article investigates the phenomenon of domestic and sexual violence against adult women using digital communications technologies. The article explores terminological and conceptual challenges and describes the empirical research literature in this field to date in relation to digital dating abuse, intimate partner cyberstalking, technology-facilitated sexual assault, image-based sexual abuse, and online sexual harassment. The article also discusses policy and practice responses to this growing problem, as well as future directions for research. We argue that research and practice need to be guided by existing conceptual frameworks that utilize gender and actor-network theory to understanding the causes and consequences of women's experiences of abuse and violence facilitated by digital technologies.

Examining the relationship between urban liveability and gender-based violence: A systematic review.

Gender-based violence can include, but is not limited to, domestic violence, intimate partner violence, rape, and intimate partner homicide. It is well-established that gender inequality is the main driver of gender-based violence. However, little work has attempted to unpack how gender-based violence perpetuates within the neighbourhood context, and whether 'liveability' attributes might intersect with gender inequality and violence. We systematically reviewed quantitative evidence examining associations between gender-based violence and several liveability neighbourhood-level factors. MEDLINE (Ovid) and Scopus databases yielded 1822 potentially relevant articles. 50 articles met inclusion criteria. Neighbourhood social capital was most consistently associated with reduced gender-based violence. Few studies examined built environment attributes (e.g. gambling venue densities, access to services). Future research is needed to more deeply examine how combinations of salutogenic or pathogenic neighbourhood attributes may reinforce or prevent violence.

Image-Based Sexual Abuse: Online Distribution Channels and Illicit Communities of Support.

This article investigates the nature and scope of image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) material on 77 high-volume online websites. On the majority of these sites, users appeared to be motivated by sexual gratification and proving masculinity to a sexually deviant peer network, rather than revenge against the person depicted in the image. We argue that nonconsensual image exchanges are contextualized within ever-expanding digital environments, characterized by dislocation of time and space, overvisualization, and hypersexuality. We argue that IBSA is a vehicle for the construction, performativity, and negotiation of hypermasculinity and heteronormativity, within the bounds and structures of existing gendered power relations.

Technology-Facilitated Sexual Violence Victimization: Results From an Online Survey of Australian Adults.

Online forms of sexual harassment and abuse as experienced by adults represent an emerging yet under-researched set of behaviors, such that very few studies have sought to estimate the extent of the problem. This article presents the results of an online survey of 2,956 Australian adult (aged 18 to 54 years) experiences of technology-facilitated sexual violence (TFSV) victimization. The prevalence of TFSV was analyzed in relation to a 21-item scale developed in accordance with prior conceptual research identifying multiple dimensions of TFSV including digital sexual harassment, image-based sexual abuse, sexual aggression and/or coercion, and, gender and/or sexuality-based harassment (including virtual sexual violence). Results revealed significant differences in lifetime TFSV victimization for younger (18-24) and non-heterosexual identifying adults. Lifetime TFSV victimization for men and women was not significantly different, though women were more likely to report sexual harassment victimization and men were more likely to report victimization through the distribution of non-consensual images, as well as gender and/or sexuality-based harassment. The authors conclude that although women and men report experiencing similar overall prevalence of TFSV victimization, the nature and impacts of those experiences differ in particular gendered ways that reflect broader patterns in both gender relations and "offline" sexual harassment.

Technology-Facilitated Sexual Violence: A Literature Review of Empirical Research.

Technology-facilitated sexual violence (TFSV) refers to a range of behaviors where digital technologies are used to facilitate both virtual and face-to-face sexually based harms. Such behaviors include online sexual harassment, gender- and sexuality-based harassment, cyberstalking, image-based sexual exploitation, and the use of a carriage service to coerce a victim into an unwanted sexual act. This article reviews the current state of knowledge on these different dimensions, drawing on existing empirical studies. While there is a growing body of research into technology-facilitated harms perpetrated against children and adolescents, there is a dearth of qualitative and quantitative research on TFSV against adults. Moreover, few of the existing studies provide reliable data on the nature, scope, and impacts of TFSV. Preliminary studies, however, indicate that some harms, much like sexual violence more broadly, may be predominantly gender-, sexuality-, and age-based, with young women being overrepresented as victims in some categories. This review collects the empirical evidence to date regarding the prevalence and gender-based nature of TFSV against adults and discusses the implications for policy and programs, as well as suggestions for future research.

Embodied harms: gender, shame, and technology-facilitated sexual violence.

Criminality in cyberspace has been the subject of much debate since the 1990s, yet comparatively little attention has been paid to technology-facilitated sexual violence and harassment (TFSV). The aim of this article is to explore the ways in which retraditionalized gender hierarchies and inequalities are manifested in online contexts, and to conceptualize the cause and effects of TFSV as "embodied harms." We argue that problematic mind/body and online/off-line dualisms result in a failure to grasp the unique nature of embodied harms, precluding an adequate understanding and theorization of TFSV.

The impossibility of bearing witness: wartime rape and the promise of justice.

Testimonies of wartime sexual violence contribute to the recognition of rape as a serious human rights violation. Although acknowledgement and justice are imperative to ending silence and impunity, this article critiques some commonly held therapeutic assumptions about disclosure through examining the way so-called "unspeakable" events are communicated through legal discourse. In this article, the author explores the inherent limitations of language for bearing witness to wartime rape, specifically focusing on international war crimes tribunals. The author argues that trials contribute to the impossibility of bearing witness through both the appropriation of trauma and the failure of law to accommodate traumatic experiences.