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Victim Blaming, Responsibilization and Resilience in Online Sexual Abuse and Harassment

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Victimology

Abstract

As digital technology becomes more pervasive and interconnected, cybercrime expands as a criminal activity, creating both new offences and victims. Whilst victims can be from any background, attitudes and responses to certain groups appear to follow similar patterns of victim blaming that pre-existed the Internet and continue to remain problematic offline. This chapter draws on recent examples of online victimization including misogynistic abuse by online trolls, attempting to silence feminist voices with intimidation and threats. Such behaviour threatens not only individual freedoms but also democracy, with female politicians increasingly exposed to vile threats and abuse. The chapter explores the persistence and reproduction of a victim-blaming rhetoric and the response of feminist activism to challenge online abuse through utilising online campaigns. It argues that whilst prevention is key to reducing the escalating harms caused by cyber abuse, it requires a strategy that moves beyond victim blaming to one that holds accountable not only the individual offenders but also internet giants. The discussion explores the particular challenges of reconciling stubborn victim-blaming assumptions with the responsibilization agenda and resilience online.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    European Cybercrime Center https://www.europol.europa.eu/about-europol/european-cybercrime-centre-ec3.

  2. 2.

    https://www.interpol.int/Crime-areas/Cybercrime/Cybercrime.

  3. 3.

    See examples of Diane Abbott and Mary Beard. Dianne Abbott is a UK Labour MP who has suffered from a multitude of harassment online, including racism sexism and insulting comments about her weight and looks. Of any UK MP, irrespective of gender, she has received the most abuse: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/sep/05/diane-abbott-more-abused-than-any-other-mps-during-election. Mary Beard is a Professor of Classics at Cambridge University. After appearing on UK television in a debate about immigration, she received misogynistic online abuse with comments disparaging her appearance and crude sexual images created involving her picture: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/jan/21/mary-beard-suffers-twitter-abuse.

  4. 4.

    The UK also has hate crime laws. For England, Wales and Scotland, the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 makes hateful behaviour towards a victim based on the victim’s membership (or presumed membership) in a racial group an ‘aggravating factor’ for the purpose of sentencing in respect of specified crimes. A ‘racial group’ is a group of persons defined by reference to race, colour, nationality (including citizenship) or ethnic or national origins. The specified crimes are assault, criminal damage, offenses under the Public Order Act 1986, and offenses under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2003/uksi_20032267_en.pd.

  5. 5.

    Caroline Criado-Perez is a British feminist activist who received an onslaught of abuse on Twitter, including rape threats, after she campaigned to have a woman on UK banknotes. A man and a woman were jailed for making extreme threats towards her: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/24/two-jailed-twitter-abuse-feminist-campaigner.

  6. 6.

    Laurie Penny is a UK feminist author and journalist who has received misogynistic and anti-Semitic abuse online https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/unspeakable-things-feminist-author-laurie-penny-subjected-to-vile-sexist-and-anti-semitic-abuse-over-9617744.html.

  7. 7.

    Stella Creasy is a UK Labour MP who was subjected to death and rape threats online after supporting Caroline Criado-Perez https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10227486/Man-arrested-over-Twitter-abuse-of-Stella-Creasy-MP.html.

  8. 8.

    Jess Phillips is a UK Labour MP who after receiving online abuse has publicly shared examples to highlight the issue. She is campaigning for an end to anonymity on social media, in that users should have to declare their true identities to social media companies in order to use the platforms: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jun/11/labour-mp-jess-phillips-calls-for-end-to-online-anonymity-after-600-threats.

  9. 9.

    See ‘GamerGate’, a harassment campaign conducted against several women in the video gaming industry, involving the hashtag #GamerGate, which was ostensibly concerned with ethics in game journalism and identity, yet involved rape and death threats https://www.ibtimes.com/what-gamergate-scandal-female-game-developer-flees-home-amid-online-threats-1704046.

  10. 10.

    Hester (2013) reports that the police now have a belief in the victim approach, with the emphasis on the victim’s credibility as a witness.

  11. 11.

    On 31 August 2014, private pictures of celebrities, mostly women, and many containing nudity, were leaked on 4chan after being hacked from the iCloud https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-45354309.

  12. 12.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/15/tory-mp-christopher-chope-blocks-progress-of-upskirting-bill.

  13. 13.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/upskirting-know-your-rights.

  14. 14.

    The harassment of women at work in the 1970s seemed to come as a surprise to some when the extent of Jimmy Saville’s abuse (see: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jun/26/jimmy-savile-sexual-abuse-timeline) started to become clear along with an examination of the culture that facilitated it.

  15. 15.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/making-britain-the-safest-place-in-the-world-to-be-online.

  16. 16.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-51840532.

  17. 17.

    https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/news/item/sentencing-council-publishes-new-guidelines-on-intimidatory-offenses-and-domestic-abuse/.

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  1. Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK

    Lisa Sugiura & April Smith

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    Pamela Davies

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Sugiura, L., Smith, A. (2020). Victim Blaming, Responsibilization and Resilience in Online Sexual Abuse and Harassment. In: Tapley, J., Davies, P. (eds) Victimology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42288-2_3

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