Networked image-based sexual abuse: a conceptual model

Throughout the world women are subjected to violence owing to their gender (World Health Organization, 2021). The growth of the internet, the diffusion of social media, and the formation of virtual communities have presented new opportunities for the infliction of sexual harms (Henry & Powell, 2015). Despite the recent interest in image-based sexual abuse, the novelty of this phenomenon implies that some aspects may remain unknown. To date, much of the research has judiciously focussed on victimisation, leading to the implementation of new laws prohibiting the public dissemination of sexual material. While the current literature primarily frames image-based sexual abuse as an individual act, the present study explores the prospect of collective involvement. Prompted by the almost instant disappearance of image-sharing networks from the surface web following the introduction of new legislation, the current study examines image-based sexual abuse from a networked perspective. Using conceptual analysis, image-based sexual abuse is re-examined by definition, consequently altering the potential scope for this activity in relation to adult women. Guided by Schwartz & DeKeseredy’s (1997) model of Male Peer Support, and giving consideration to the advancements in technology that have transformed men’s opportunities for socialisation; the manosphere is presented as a potential arena for the formation of sub-communities in which the circulation of sexual material takes place. The term networked image-based sexual abuse is introduced to describe a specific set of conditions namely, the inclusion of dossiers, the existence of a closed community, and sexually motivated group membership, that encompass non-consensual sexual material. Findings provide the basis for a conceptual model illustrating the implications for networked image-based sexual abuse by acknowledging doxing as third-party involvement and positioning sexual images as a component of a wider exploitational process.