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Abstract Sexual violence is a world‐wide health problem that has begun to escalate in online and virtual spaces. One form of technology‐facilitated sexual violence that has grown in recent years is image‐based sexual abuse (IBSA), or the nonconsensual creation, distribution, and/or threat of distribution of nude or sexual images. Using a trauma‐informed and victim‐centered framework, we asked victim‐survivors for structural solutions to IBSA based on their own experiences. Using thematic analysis on 36 semi‐structured interviews with adult U.S. victim‐survivors of IBSA, we found that victim‐survivors proposed structural solutions to IBSA along five general dimensions: legal (creating/strengthening laws, enforcing laws, facilitating legal navigation), corporate (corporate responsibility/activism and solutions for employers), educational (IBSA education, outreach and advocacy, and developing communities of support), technological (more platform accountability, improved procedures for uploading images, better avenues for reporting and removing images, and enhanced platform policies), and cultural. Many solutions built on existing structures (e.g., sexual education in schools) and frameworks (e.g., creating support groups like those for people in recovery from alcohol abuse), enabling educational professionals, policy makers, victim‐support service providers, and corporations to readily implement them. 

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed many aspects of American life online, including sexual intimacy. Increases in sexting and other forms of virtual intimacy may also have increased the nonconsensual distribution of intimate images (NDII), a form of image-based sexual abuse (IBSA). This study is among the first to quantitatively examine the holistic downstream consequences of NDII victimization among U.S. adults (N= 3,150) during the COVID-19 pandemic. We hypothesized that (a) emerging adults would be more likely to experience NDII during the pandemic than other age groups, (b) that victims would experience more negative downstream consequences than nonvictims across nine health and well-being outcomes, and (c) that victims of marginalized identity groups would experience more severe negative outcomes than their nonvictim peers, as compared to those in more privileged identity groups. Multivariate analyses of variance were used to examine the effects of victimization, gender, race, and sexual orientation on all outcomes. Results supported hypothesis 2 but did not fully support hypotheses 1 and 3. During the pandemic, victims experienced worse well-being on all nine outcomes than nonvictims, and, unexpectedly, some of these outcomes (e.g., alcohol consumption) were further exacerbated in men (vs. women) victims. 

Using routine activity theory (RAT), the present study investigated predictors of two types of technology-facilitated violence: cyber obsessional pursuit victimization (COPV) and Cyber Aggression in Relationships Scale (CARS), during COVID-19 among a sample of U.S. adults ( N = 2,975). Results revealed that target attractiveness in terms of gender, age, and racial/ethnic background predicted both intimate (CARS) and nonintimate (COPV) cyber violence. For target exposure, technology use and the perceived ability to protect one's privacy predicted both types of cyber violence. Previous experience of in-person intimate partner violence explained the largest amount of variance in both types of technology-facilitated violence victimization. 

Objective: Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) is a form of technology-facilitated sexual violence in which intimate photos or videos are nonconsensually taken, shared, and/or threatened to be shared. The shift to fully virtual social interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic facilitated a spike in IBSA victimization during this time, and—with many organizations functioning at limited capacity—survivors had limited resources available to them to manage the distress associated with victimization. The purpose of this study was to understand the coping strategies used by diverse survivors of IBSA during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Method: We conducted structured interviews using a trauma-informed approach. Using codebook thematic analysis, we analyzed the data from 36 survivors of IBSA during the pandemic (Mage = 31.01; two participants did not disclose age). The sample was diverse in terms of genders, races, and sexual orientations represented. Results: We identified five groups of coping strategies employed by participants: avoiding distressing feelings, reputational damage control, retaliatory sextortion, seeking emotional support, and pursuing justice. Many participants used multiple strategies to manage the distress associated with their IBSA victimization. Conclusions: Survivors of IBSA cope with their victimization in diverse ways, some of which have not been previously reported in coping strategies literature and may be unique to the experience of IBSA. 

In a large and diverse sample of U. S. adults, we assessed participants’ experience with pre-COVID in-person intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization and with sextortion victimization during COVID to better understand the relationship between these phenomena. Experiencing sexual IPV pre-COVID increased the likelihood that men and women would experience sextortion during COVID. Men, Black and Native women, LGBTQ individuals, and emerging adults more often experienced sextortion during COVID than other groups. Implications for research on technology-facilitated sexual violence and practice with survivors are explored.