ABSTRACT

There is little doubt that image-based sexual abuse is being used as a tool or strategy by perpetrators to carry out harassment, sexual violence or intimate partner abuse in ways which both facilitate and extend the harms of that abuse. Yet, not all image-based sexual abuse fits within this broader and familiar pattern of gender-based violence. This chapter seeks to disentangle the complexity of image-based sexual abuse behaviours which are, in many instances, a tool of very serious and harmful forms of abuse, whilst in others, a behaviour which is not always perceived as overtly harmful. In order to navigate the complex spectrum of behaviours that constitute image-based sexual abuse, the chapter engages with the shifting social norms in relation to intimate image taking and sharing, and how these might be interacting with persistent problematic social norms regarding sexual autonomy and consent.