Perpetration of Technology-facilitated Abuse: Emerging Frameworks, Methods and Evidence

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract/Description

In panel we explore an issue largely overlooked to date: the perpetration of technology-facilitated abuse. The motives, perceptions, practices, cohorts and characteristics of those who engage in digital harms warrants attention. Without a knowledge and evidence-base, efforts to prevent and respond to violence are severely limited. Addressing this deficit, in this session we propose and critique conceptual and theoretical frameworks that are or could be used to investigate the perpetration of technology-facilitated gender-based violence, including image-based abuse, and digital partner and family violence. We contend that there is a need to use both traditional and emerging methodologies in this work, including surveys, digital ethnography, interviews and ‘story completion’ models and, that technology can be harnessed in disrupting perpetration. Drawing on data from studies from Australia and America, as well as international data sources, we provide insights for scholars, advocates and policy-makers working in this field, to understand, uncover and ultimately prevent perpetration of technology-facilitate abuse.

Sub Unit

• Area III. Types of Offending / 19. Identity Theft and Cyber Crime

Individual Presentations

• Towards a Theoretical Framework of Image-Based Sexual Abuse - Anna Gjika, SUNY New Paltz

• Digital Ethnography of Image-Based Abuse Perpetration Online - Nicola Henry, RMIT University

• “You Have No Idea of What I’m Capable Of”: The Multiple Manifestations of Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration in the Digital Age - Alison Marganski, Le Moyne College; Lisa Melander, Kansas State University

• “Very insidious”: Practitioner and Perpetrator Accounts of Technology-facilitated Domestic Violence - Bridget Harris, Monash University

Chair

• Lisa Melander, Kansas State University