The multi-layered harm of image-based sexual abuse: A qualitative analysis of the interacting financial,emotional,and social impacts

Abstract

This article examines the lived experiences of 17 victims of image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) through in-depth qualitative interviews. Drawing on interpretivist victimology and research on technology-facilitated sexual violence, the study explores how IBSA produces layered and intersecting harms across three domains: emotional and psychological impact, social and relational disruption, and financial consequences. It further examines how the technological environment, marked by anonymity, permanence, and borderless circulation, shapes and intensifies these harms. Victims reported intense emotional responses, ranging from fear and anxiety to shame, depression, and psychosomatic distress. Socially, many experienced isolation, stigma, and erosion of trust, particularly when abuse intersected with cultural taboos or gendered expectations. Financially, victims faced extortion, educational and occupational disruption, and the cost of seeking justice or support. The technological architecture of digital platforms facilitated recurrence, impersonation, and institutional neglect, leaving victims with a sense of prolonged vulnerability and burden. Rather than a one-time event, IBSA emerges as a temporally extended process in which harms accumulate, interact, and reshape victims’ life narratives. Institutional responses often reinforced harm through disbelief, inaction, or procedural re-traumatization. These findings underscore the need to reframe IBSA not only as a digital or interpersonal violation, but as a cumulative form of victimization that disrupts recovery and future-oriented agency. The article concludes with implications for platform governance, trauma-informed institutional design, and future research on the meaning-making dimensions of digital abuse.