Barriers, Facilitators and Strategies to Promote Bystander Intervention in Image-Based Sexual Abuse Contexts

• In Event: Bystander Intervention and Image-Based Sexual Abuse

Abstract

Research suggests that support for, and intervention by, people who witness abusive behaviours can reduce the extent and impacts of those behaviours, problematic attitudes, and harms. Research also suggests that promoting bystander intervention when witnessing violence and discrimination may be an effective prevention tool. In this regard, bystanders could play a greater role in preventing image-based sexual abuse (IBSA). Utilising data from surveys and in-person focus groups with 219 participants in four Australian States, this presentation discusses barriers and facilitators to bystander intervention in IBSA contexts, and how messaging could be improved to help people intervene in a safe and effective manner. We found that bystander intervention was affected by perceptions of safety and the potential risks of intervening; gender; perceptions of how the intervention would be perceived by the perpetrator and other bystanders; relationships; the age, physicality, and mental state of the perpetrator; and the presence of others. The presentation concludes by discussing what mechanisms participants identified as potential ways to improve bystander intervention when witnessing IBSA.

Authors

• Asher Flynn, Monash University

• Elena Cama, University of New South Wales

• Adrian J. Scott, University of Goldsmiths