Technology-facilitated Sexual Violence against Women and Children

Session Submission Type: Pre-arranged Panel

Abstract

Sexual violence against women and child sexual abuse warrant new social science research and criminal law reflections. While contemporary criminal law and society are getting a grip on traditional offline sexual violence, they lag behind in effectively tackling technology-facilitated sexual violence and harassment. This panel sheds light specifically on verbal and image-based online harassment against women and children. It discusses gender-based violence focusing on both the normalisation of online sexual harassment on dating apps and an adapted framework for understanding the role of the online incel community in online misogynistic radicalization. To explore both opportunities and risks the ongoing digitalization brings about, a closer look is taken at the policing and reporting of online child sexual abuse material, the criminalization of the dissemination of nonconsensual deepfake pornography and the legal and jurisdictional complexities of investigating sexual crime in the metaverse.

Subtopic

• Topic 2: Types of Offending / Gender-Based Violence and Domestic Violence (Gender, Crime and Justice WG)

Chair

• Gert Vermeulen, Ghent University

Individual Presentations

• Tinder Tales: Exploring the Normalisation of Online Sexual Harassment in Modern Dating - Laura Byn, Ghent University

• Understanding Inceldom: An Adapted Framework for Analyzing the Incel Community Within an Online Radicalization Approach. - Renée Pattyn, Ghent University

• The policing and reporting of online child sexual abuse material: a scoping review - Nena Decoster, Ghent University

• Criminalization of the Dissemination of Nonconsensual Deepfake Pornography in the European Union. A Comparative Legal Analysis. - Can Yavuz, Ghent University

• Guardians of the metaverse-galaxy: legal and jurisdictional complexities in investigating sexual crime in the metaverse - Julie Van Pée, PhD Researcher Ghent University