Projects

Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) has received increasing media attention with the advent of new artificial intelligence-based human synthesis technology that allows anyone with time and program access to create “deepfake” pornographic images and videos without the consent of the victim. The current body of literature has demonstrated how IBSA affects the mental and physical health of victims, but the field has yet to fully understand how the average digital consumer understands IBSA. To date, there is no instrument to measure the attitudes of digital users around IBSA perpetration and victimization. The current study outlines the development and validation of the Attitudes about Image-Based Sexual Abuse scale, to provide researchers with a new instrument to ascertain population attitude norms around IBSA, including victim and perpetrator attribution, and appropriate consequences for cyber sexual abuse.

Nonconsensual pornography (NCP), the distribution of sexually explicit images or videos of another person or persons without their consent, is an increasingly common form of cyber sexual abuse NCP victims are predominantly female, LGBTQ and racial/ethnic minorities. Current research on the consequences of NCP victimization is limited, examining mainly health correlates. The present study moves beyond medicalized typologies and takes a holistic approach to the harms of sexual violence, examining the relationship between NCP victimization during COVID-19 and alcohol use, economic stress, physical and psychological well-being. This work increases our understanding of the consequences experienced by victims of NCP, which may better inform our societal responses to NCP victimization.

Sexual cognitions that flow from traditional gender roles and previous history of victimization are strong predictors of sexual assault. Because these cognitions reside within the individual themselves, we hypothesized that these same cognitions will be predictors of subsequent reporting behavior to formal campus supports as well.

An online self-report survey for assessing students’ awareness and perception of sexual safety was administered in a random stratified sample of college students. Participants were shown a hypothetical vignette involving date-rape and alcohol and were asked to rate their likelihood of making a formal report if this happened to them. A backward-chunkwise elimination procedure was used to build a regression model involving nine predictors grouped into five categories: (1) conformity to traditional gender roles, (2) rape myth acceptance beliefs, (3) token resistance, (4) sexual assertiveness, and (5) prior history of victimization. 

This project, an external collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) under the direction of a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Division of Violence Prevention, seeks to identify policy evaluation literature focused on the interconnected violence types that have been correlated with perpetration of intimate partner violence, in an attempt to focus on which policies are most effective at preventing children from developing into perpetrators of intimate partner or domestic violence. 

This qualitative study examines the help-seeking behaviors of LGBTQ+ persons who experienced one or more instances of cyber sexual violence in 2020-21. Using one-on-one interviews and thematic analysis, I am documenting the experiences of this population, seeking cohesive themes to better understand what supports or services are accessed by these persons, and any limitations or frustrations they have experienced as a result of their experience of cyber sexual violence.