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Social elements
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Actors involved
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Offender; victim; third parties (victim’s child, offender’s and victim’s child, extramarital partner, victim’s parent, third party engaging in sex with the victim, male peers)
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Relationship between victim and offender
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Committed partner, sexual partner, cheating partner (see Drouin et al. 2013); former sexual relationship; former dating partner; current dating partner; former domestic partner; current domestic partner; married; separated; in the process of separating; victim’s parent; mother-daughter; ex-partner-mother (victim’s) biological son; mother (offender)
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Circumstances
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Dating/domestic relationship/marriage breakdown; victim initiates break-up; victim refuses to get back together; victim refuses to accept break-up initiated by offender; victim refuses to communicate with offender after break-up; victim takes action to have intimate photos taken down from sites; victim requests photos to be deleted on offender’s mobile device; extramarital affairs; victim does not find offender’s threats credible; victim refuses to pay sum of money to offender; victim does not know offender is in possession of intimate pictures/videos; victim sent offender images during online interactions before formalising offline domestic/sexual relationship
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Approach method
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Confrontation
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Offender wanted to get back together with victim; wanted to get victim to stop seeing new partner; wanted to turn daughter against her father; initiated break-up and moved on to date victim’s friend; threatened to disseminate images if victim did not stop contacting him; installed tracking app on mobile device; unauthorised access of victim’s unattended smartphone/computer/email/Facebook accounts; changed passwords; uploaded victim’s images from victim’s social media account
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Surprise
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Offender possesses/still possesses victim’s images and/or has kept images not withstanding victim’s constant requests that the offender deletes them; non-consensual photography; intimate covert filming; consensually taken images disseminated without warning; breach of trust; sending victim’s images to victim as proof that they are still in possession of the victim’s images and are not afraid to post them publicly or to friends and family
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Blitz
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Used victim’s intimate images (taken with victim’s consent and/or without victim’s consent); victim’s face fully identifiable in nude/semi-nude images; close-up images of victim’s genitalia and intimate visual recordings of victim engaging in sexual acts such as masturbation, oral sex and sexual intercourse; exploiting digital communications technologies and poor regulation of social media platforms; pornographic sites; victim leaving smartphone and computer unattended; victim not logging out of social media accounts on smartphone; knowing the victim’s social connections and how best to inflict harm on them through selectively targeting recipients (public, friends and family or victim directly); blackmail with or without a sum of money
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Setting
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Location
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Pornography sites; social media public groups catering to men seeking sexual services; work-based website; social media pages; a website of a corporation; smartphones; Facebook messenger; victim’s social media account; email; threats to post during physical meetings and via text messages; physical setting where victim was covertly filmed/photographed (with or without consent)
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More than one crime scene
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Yes/no
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Time
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Daylight; darkness
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Interaction
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Victim reaction
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Resisted; ignored offender; stayed in relationship with offender out of fear; complied to sexual requests out of fear; initiated steps to get images taken down from websites; sought legal help and intermediary services; filed police report
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Offender reaction
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Used threats; ignored victim’s pleas not to disclose images; refused to delete victim’s intimate images; blackmail; negotiation; ceased to demand anything from victim; posted image on victim’s social media account Timeline (private settings) or sent image via instant messenger (IM) to victim’s family (e.g., son or daughter—can be minors, mother, etc.); repeated uploading of intimate visual recordings; bypassed threats
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RS-IBSA acts
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Disclosing content to a specific target audience (victim’s closest family or friends, usually 1–2 individuals); disclosing content to a larger audience (victim’s friends or public) using multiple platforms; disclosing personal information such as direct reference to name, mobile phone number, e-mail; attaching a price tag of “$1” to each image; advertising victim’s body for sexual services (e.g., “She’s DTF boys”); disclosing victim’s intimate video recordings on pornographic site; offensive labelling of images or video footage (e.g., “Dirty whore” and “Slut begs for it in the arse”)
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Other variables
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Disruption
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Third party intervened/disrupted (friend of victim and witness during trial); victim sought help from police before images were posted; police investigating offender for other charges; offender (wife) tried to undo damage on victim (husband) and their child by confessing to lawyers and the police her unauthorised access of husband’s smartphone and FB account; changing passwords and disseminating intimate images using FB account
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Exit
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Offender stops contacting victim; victim stops contacting offender
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Threats/force
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No threats with immediate action; threats used (1-12 threats); threats severe enough to elicit victim compliance with sexual requests by offender and/or relationship continuation with offender; doxing to inflict the most harm on victim
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Tools/transport
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iPhone with camera and image storage folder; smartphone with social media applications downloaded; smartphone with IM software downloaded (WhatsApp and FB Messenger); victim’s address book; victim’s browser history; pornography sites; email; work-based sites; social media (FB) public groups; privacy settings; tagging option; public groups catering to men seeking sexual services; smartphones left unattended by victim; passwords given to offender by victim; creating new social media account; websites and other digital (including social media) platforms allowing uploads of nude and semi-nude photographs; sexual videos and advertising for sexual services and with poor regulation policies for IBSA offences
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Post-action
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Tried to comfort victim/be intimate with victim; concealed circumstances from police
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Other
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Potential “triggers” (date/sexual advance rejection, prior relationship break-up); prior alcohol and drug problems or convictions (e.g., driving dangerously or driving with excess breath alcohol, possession of drugs); prior history of domestic violence or convictions (e.g., male assaults female, breach of protection order); mental health problems (e.g., self-harm, substance abuse/addiction)
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