Non-consensual dissemination of sexual images: The victim-offender overlap

Abstract

Digital technology provides young people with many new opportunities. However, these opportunities concurred with the development of new offences. A well-studied offence is non-consensual dissemination of sexual images (NCDSI), which can be described as the distribution of explicit photos and videos without the awareness and/or permission of the person pictured. According to previous research, adolescents and emerging adults are most often victims and perpetrators of this behaviour. Furthermore, several studies have observed that there is a relation between victimisation and perpetration of NCDSI. Our study aims to further explore this relation. Using data from the Youth monitor 2018, a survey conducted by the Youth Research Platform in Flanders, the present study researched whether there was a victim-offender overlap within NCDSI. Moreover, the relation between NCDSI and victimisation and perpetration of other offences was studied. Both bivariate and logistic regression analyses were conducted. Our results show that there is a victim-offender overlap within NCDSI as well as an association between NCDSI and victimisation and perpetration of other offences. Theoretical insights for these findings are presented. In addition, the notions ‘victim’ and ‘offender’ are discussed as the overlap questions their suitability.