Police Officer Perceptions of Non-consensual Dissemination of Intimate Images

Abstract

Non-consensual dissemination of intimate images (NCII) is a major concern in many countries. The increase in the number of NCII cases and awareness of its adverse effects on victims has raised public awareness, with many states enacting legal and non-legal measures to combat this new type of violence. Yet, despite recent legislation, there is a reason to suspect that the majority of NCII cases remain unreported. Thus, research is needed on law enforcement perceptions of victims and identification of victim-blaming attitudes and factors that might affect legal decision-making. The present study addressed this issue by focusing on Israeli police officer perceptions of NCII victims and offenders: 145 police officers and 160 students, who served as a control group, were presented with a scenario depicting an NCII offense in which the stolen intimate material was either self-generated by the victim (selfies) or stealth-taken by the victim's ex-boyfriend. In both cases, the stolen images were disseminated by the ex-boyfriend without the victim's permission. The findings indicated victim-blaming attitudes toward NCII victims within law enforcement as well as an effect of the source of stolen images. Although officers perceived NCII as criminal and the offender as highly culpable and punishable, they engaged in victim-blaming. This was especially the case for the self-taken scenario, which elicited negative feelings and less empathy toward the victim. The relevance of emotions in legal contexts is emphasized in light of their contribution to the participants' punitive judgments. Victim-blaming in NCII offenses and its implications are discussed, and suggestions are made for how to reduce negative and victim-blaming attitudes among law enforcement.

Gender differences in videoed accounts of victim blaming for revenge porn for self-taken and stealth-taken sexually explicit images and videos

“…The act of revenge porn is quite specific to the unwanted and unauthorised sharing of sexual content that was either originally provided by a victim, or that has been acquired without a victim's awareness. In line with Zvi and Schechory-Bitton's (2020) recent suggestions, the current work will call the former self-taken and the latter stealthtaken sexually explicit material. This reflects that differences of acquisition for SEM occur.…”

“…There is clearly a discrepancy amongst the limited research available in terms of clarifying the gender roles in revenge porn victim blame. Where work is available, it has considered a raft of different types of digitally-mediated sexual misconduct rather than focusing specifically on revenge porn (e.g., Eaton & McGlynn, 2020), has focused specifically on images (e.g., Zvi & Schechory-Bitton, 2020), or has used selfreported views and opinions in response to vignette-based studies (e.g., Bothamley & Tully, 2017). Further research is thus tasked with finding a more parsimonious account of blame for male and female victims which also considers the impact of both the #metoo and #himtoo movements (Banet-Weiser, 2021) in a possible replication of the novel video-based approach adopted here to relay real victim accounts of revenge porn.…”

“…Moreover, viewing the videos may have been triggering for some participants, or may have evoked a sense of anger or frustration against the offender (e.g., & Schechory-Bitton, 2020), or even against the victim for sharing SEM in the first place. It might however be the case that participants over-empathised with victims (e.g., Zvi & Schechory-Bitton, 2020). Future research is tasked with exploring this further, for example, by possibly exploring what participants actually feel themselves and in relation to the victims and/or offenders.…”

“…The fall out and emotional turmoil experienced by the victim far outweighed embarrassment, humiliation or feeling revenged against, with the laying bare of her sexual life in court causing extensive long-lasting trauma. The second study was reported by Zvi and Schechory-Bitton (2020) in which they observed that victims were considered blameworthy for the occurrence of revenge porn for both self-and stealth-taken images. They did, however, focus on images as SEM.…”

Police Perceptions of Sex-worker Rape Victims and Their Offenders: A Vignette Study

“…Responses on each item were given on a scale of 1 (very little agreement) to 5 (very high agreement). The three items were taken from previous research on perceptions of criminal cases (e.g., Shechory-Bitton & Zvi, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020; Zvi & Shechory-Bitton, 2020a, 2020b).…”