Beyond ‘Revenge Porn’: The Continuum of Image-Based Sexual Abuse

• Published in: Feminist legal studies Vol. 25; no. 1; pp. 25 - 46
• Main Authors: McGlynn, Clare, Rackley, Erika, Houghton, Ruth
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.04.2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Criminalization; Gender Studies; Human Rights; Law; Law and Criminology; Political Theory; Pornography & obscenity; Prevention; Public International Law; Revenge; Sex crimes; Sexual abuse; Sexual violence; Sexualization; Victims; Non-consensual pornography; Online abuse; Image-based sexual abuse; Revenge porn; Continuum of sexual violence
• ISSN: 0966-3622; 1572-8455
• DOI: 10.1007/s10691-017-9343-2

In the last few years, many countries have introduced laws combating the phenomenon colloquially known as ‘revenge porn’. While new laws criminalising this practice represent a positive step forwards, the legislative response has been piecemeal and typically focuses only on the practices of vengeful ex-partners. Drawing on Liz Kelly’s (Surviving sexual violence. Polity Press, Cambridge, 1988 ) pioneering work, we suggest that ‘revenge porn’ should be understood as just one form of a range of gendered, sexualised forms of abuse which have common characteristics, forming what we are conceptualising as the ‘continuum of image-based sexual abuse’. Further, we argue that image-based sexual abuse is on a continuum with other forms of sexual violence. We suggest that this twin approach may enable a more comprehensive legislative and policy response that, in turn, will better reflect the harms to victim-survivors and lead to more appropriate and effective educative and preventative strategies.