Sexual Violence in the Digital Age: Replicating and Augmenting Harm, Victimhood and Blame

Abstract

This article examines some of the complexities and tensions which lie at the intersection of popular and official constructions of technology-assisted sexual violence (TA-SV). It argues that many of the core contextual understandings of victimhood and harm which underpin the cultural and legal framing of offline forms of sexual violence are not only reproduced but augmented in virtual settings. Drawing on debates from critical victimology, the article argues that TA-SV amplifies traditional understandings of ‘victim’ and ‘offender’ behaviours concerning sexual crime. In so doing, it highlights the particular challenges around: a) the ‘ideal victim’; (b) responsibilisation and blame; and c) victim-offender-bystander continuums which emerge not only within discourses on TA-SV, but also through the use of digital evidence at trial. The article concludes by examining the broader implications for academic discourses on victimhood and the challenges for legal and cultural discourses in responding to sexual violence in the digital age.

The Urgency of Digital Citizenship Learning Module for Indonesian Student

“…There are many cases of social violence in the virtual world, such as cyberbullying, cyber-raping, digital drama, cyber hoaxes, and others. (Kurasawa, 2021) In addition to that, one's solid self-concept, internet self-efficacy and digital social skills must be nurtured from an early age in the family, school environment, and the digital ecology of the learner [2]. The internet self-efficacy, technological skill on learners and the inter-connection with cyberbullying has studied by Savage and Tokunaga [3]; high levels of efficacy necessary to enact cyberbullying perpetration means that a subset of otherwise would-be offline perpetrators may never become cyberbullies and some who will likely never bully others in person might do so if they feel confident in their technological skills.…”