Exploring the Impact of Technology-Facilitated Abuse and Its Relationship with Domestic Violence: A Qualitative Study on Experts' Perceptions

Swipe Left on Sexual Harassment: Understanding and Addressing Technology-Facilitated Sexual Violence on Dating Apps

Dating violence is a pervasive issue that has become increasingly complex to address as technologies mediating interpersonal connections become more widely utilized. The incidence and ways in which violence manifests through digital media are not fully understood. This study aimed to better understand the relationship between geolocational dating apps like Tinder, Bumble, and Grindr and technology-facilitated sexual violence (TFSV) among university students. An anonymous survey was electronically administered to a convenience sample of 1,000 undergraduates at a large private university in the southeastern United States. Participants indicated their dating app usage and the frequency of specific TFSV experiences they had encountered. Chi-square tests were conducted to identify relationships between demographic characteristics and experiences of TFSV. Multivariate logistic regression was conducted to predict TFSV based on respondent characteristics. A total of 910 respondents completed the survey, with more than half (54%) of respondents reporting some type of TFSV while using dating apps. Women and non-heterosexual students experience significantly more TFSV than male and heterosexual students. While participants' academic year (first-year through senior) and participation in extracurricular activities were not associated with TFSV, dating app selection was a significant predictor of the likelihood to report TFSV, with Grindr users being significantly more likely to report. Major Implications Due to the near-ubiquitous use of dating apps in this population, interventions to address campus social norms, comprehensive sexuality education, and consent education, and improved regulation of TFSV by technology companies should be implemented- especially for cisgender, heterosexual women, and gender and sexual minorities.

Perpetrator Perceptions on the Emotions and Motivations Driving Technology-Facilitated Abuse in Relationships: A Story Completion Study

Technology-facilitated abuse in relationships (TAR) is a widespread social problem that has a significant impact on victim-survivors. Most contemporary evidence on TAR focuses on victim-survivor and practitioner perspectives rather than those of perpetrators who choose to enact this form of harm. Addressing this deficit, this study explored perpetrators' discourses on emotions and motivations associated with engaging in TAR. Using story completion method, 35 self-identified perpetrators of TAR completed story stems describing scenarios that may precede the use of abusive online behaviors. Reflexive thematic analysis generated three themes. Abusive behaviors and negative emotions speaks to maladaptive experiences of anger and/or sadness that can precede a decision to use TAR. A loss of trust, a desire for control describes potential motives for using TAR. Finally, inhibitors of abusive behavior investigates rationales perpetrators use for avoidance of TAR behaviors, suggesting avenues for working with perpetrators to refrain from using TAR. We conclude by discussing policy, practice, and research recommendations including strategies for technology designers and suggestions for primary prevention and response to TAR.

Australian Trends in Academic Literature Concerned With Family and Domestic Violence Perpetrators: A Bibliometric Literature Review

In this article, we used a novel hybrid approach to review literature concerned with family and domestic violence (FADV) perpetrators. Our intention was to chart the research and publication activity of authors with Australian affiliation to identify homegrown evidence related to stopping the perpetration of violence. This involved systematic searching of literature from the Scopus electronic database, utilization of VOSviewer to sort keyword co-occurrences and authorship linking for 1,494 publication records over a 30-year period, and the review of 21 articles with perpetrator focus, identified from the 50 most cited publications. We found that Australians' authoring interests in FADV, over the last three decades, with perpetrator focus were predominantly concentrated on gender, rape and sexual assault, coercive control, and child abuse. In the most cited literature, six major themes were identified: perpetrator motivations, perpetrator interventions, patterns of violence, pandemic duet, perception of blame, and cyberstalking and violence. An upward curve in Australian authoring activity in the period under review aligns with societal shifts in which FADV was once considered a private issue and has now become ubiquitous in the public domain. Our findings revealed that research into perpetrators is insufficient to promote a zero-tolerance approach to FADV. Our corresponding in-depth literature review provides valuable insights surrounding perpetrator intervention programs with the goal of more effectively addressing the emerging challenge of technology-facilitated coercive control.

Technology-Facilitated Abuse in the Context of Intimate Partner Violence: A Qualitative Study of Women Survivors in Taiwan

We explore the emerging issue of how communications technologies can be used by male perpetrators to facilitate intimate partner violence against their female partners. We analyzed interview narratives from 18 women survivors of intimate partner violence in Taiwan, informed by Stark's theory of coercive control. Our findings indicated that the male perpetrators of intimate partner violence against the survivors utilized communications technologies to further harm, control, and intimidate their victims. We found that the perpetrators harassed, stalked/monitored, and isolated the survivors and distributed defamatory messages about the survivors to other people using telephones, e-mail, social media, the Internet, broadcast media, and recording devices.

The Rapid Uptake of Digital Technologies at Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Organizations During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Emerging evidence suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately impacted survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault (DV/SA). This research note explores DV/SA service providers' (n = 20) perceptions of how their organizations responded to the pandemic. Results of a thematic content analysis indicated that survivors were adversely affected by sheltering with abusive partners and by external environmental conditions. Organizations responded to shifting community needs by adapting face-to-face services to virtual formats and revising pre pandemic safety planning protocols. School-based prevention programming required significant adjustments. Therefore, the pandemic catalyzed the integration and optimization of emerging technologies and provided opportunities for organizational innovation.