Cyber Sexual Assault and Trauma
When one thinks of trauma the classic definition comes to mind, deeply distressing or disturbing experience or physical injury (Webster Dictionary, 2018). Our first thoughts usually goes to major violent events like war trauma, sexual assaults, etc. We, as a society, have historically always viewed physical violence as the most severe and rightfully so but we lose sight of the emotional costs and what that in turn does to an individual. I think of what my grandmother would say to me, “sticks and stone may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”. In some aspect this is correct, we treat those physical breaks with medicine but infrequently treat the emotional breaks caused by the words, so although we receive physical injury from physical abuse, we cannot belittle the emotional injury of abuse like cyber sexual abuse.
I believe this to be the mindset when we think of cyber sexual abuse or as it has been labelled previously, “revenge porn”. The idea is that the abuse is not physically happening to the individual, so therefore it cannot be creating too significant of a trauma. But the prevalence of intimate partner violence is more closely correlated to emotional or psychological abuse than act
ual physical abuse. One in seven relationships for physical abuse and close to two-thirds of all partnerships for emotional or psychological abuse. (Bartol & Bartol, 2017)
When Dr. Shelley Clevenger presented before congress as a member of American Society of Criminology’s Division of Women and Crime to share with them recommendations towards the Enough Act, she was trying to address this under reported fact of emotional and psychological abuse. In her presentation Dr. Clevenger addressed the issue of cyber sexual abuse, the reason this is such an important topic to be discussed is because there is a lack of knowledge around it. When Dr. Clevenger was reporting her qualitative research results, she noted that all of the 500 survivors of intimate partner violence also experiences cyber sexual abuse. People misinterpret the actions of the offender as just, based off the fact that someone may have given them access to the sensitive material. An example of an abuse and the mindset of one police officer is Betty, a 60-year-old woman, who broke up with her abusive boyfriend, he reacted by sending an intimate photo to multiple men who then tried to contact Betty online. The situation escalated until Betty had to quit her job as a nurse out of fear that her abuser would continue to send the photo to her coworkers. A New York police officer told her that this was her fault for sending the photo in the first place. (Atlas, 2018) This mindset is shifting with every bit of knowledge that is put out there for policy makers to help guide them.
In New York City, it is now (as of February 15, 2018) a crime to share, or threaten to share, an intimate photo without the subject’s consent or with the intent to cause harm to the subject. 41 states and Washington DC also have laws against cyber sexual abuse; however no statewide law currently exists in New York. (Atlas, 2018) This is a huge step in the right direction, it is showing that our policy makers are recognizing the harmfulness of cyber sexual abuse and its traumatic effects and are willing to do something about it.
The traumatic outcomes that can come from this type of abuse are ones that can last a long time. Even though there maybe protect orders in place, it still does not erase the judgement some people may have towards the victims based off of what they had seen or heard. Also, once images are on the web they can be taken down but there is no guarantee they weren’t copied before they were taken down. It leaves the victims of cyber sexual abuse is a very vulnerable situation of not knowing if those pictures or video will surface again.
Atlas, Lauren. (June 11, 2018). What You Didn’t Know About Cyber Sexual Abuse. Sanctuary for Families. Retrieved on December 18, 2018 from https://sanctuaryforfamilies.org/what-you-didnt-know-about-cyber-sexual-abuse/
Bartol, Anne, and Bartol, Curtis. (2017). Criminal Behavior: A Psychological Approach. 11th Edition. Pearson. 2017.
Clevenger, Shelley. (October 2018). Cyberabuse of Women and Girls. American Society of Criminology’s Division of Women and Crime. ASCDWC VIDEO, Published on Oct 12, 2018. Retrieved on December 18, 2018 from https://youtu.be/_wTMHoyUrhc