Abstract
In what ways can new, emerging digital technologies and energy business models such as “prosuming” become intertwined with troubling patterns of domestic abuse and violence? Domestic violence entails controlling, coercive or threatening behaviours, to gain or maintain power and control between intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality. The rapid development of digital communication services, smart homes, and digitalization processes such as prosuming create surprising threats related to technology-facilitated abuse. In this empirical study, based on a nationally representative survey of householders (n= 1,032 respondents) and three focus groups with the general public in different locations around the UK (n= 18 respondents), we explore the extent that prosuming technologies, smart grids and smart systems could act as potential enablers of domestic violence or systems of control. We also explore the use of smart systems as possible deterrents and mechanisms to reduce and address domestic violence and provide victim protection and recovery. In doing so, we explore user perceptions and preferences of smart systems, in relation to trust, monitoring, tracking, and surveillance. We finally discuss our results through the themes of duality and policy and provide conclusions with recommendations for further research.
Highlights
Access to the Internet is perceived as a key service to gaining efficient access to information (Butler and Abrahart, 1997), guaranteeing economic well-being, advancing social conditions and achieving convenience
We asked survey respondents: How much would you say you know about smart systems? We were interested in participants’ answers in this area since being knowledgeable regarding the use of smart systems may facilitate perpetrators tools to enact cyber abuse or victims to respond to it
Our results indicate that most men 60.5% have a good idea to a very good idea of what smart systems are, in contrast to 49.2% of women
Summary
Access to the Internet is perceived as a key service to gaining efficient access to information (Butler and Abrahart, 1997), guaranteeing economic well-being, advancing social conditions and achieving convenience. The Internet is increasingly perceived as a fundamental human right (Sandle, 2016) With this in mind, the number of Internet of things (IoT) devices continues to grow rapidly (Mckinsey 2019), and in turn, smart systems have become a prominent area of study. Extensive research has focused on the ability of smart systems to offer enhancements in many areas of life. These range from providing health and assisted living services (Balta-Ozkan et al, 2013), contribute to more energy efficient households (Sovacool, Furszyfer and Griffiths, 2021), to enhancing users’ comfort and convenience (Sovacool and Furszyfer Del Rio 2020) with an. Smart devices possess the potential to transform human lives given the wide range of application these technologies offer (Hittinger and Jaramillo 2019)
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