My latest publication tackles the topic of revenge porn. It was written as a response to the current debate in Canada over the creation of a new criminal offence: non-consensual distribution of intimate images. The topic has gained even more prominence given recent events involving hacked photos of Hollywood celebrities. I argue that non-consensual distribution is a species of sexual objectification that is analytically linked to the wrong that underlies sexual assault.
This paper grew out of work I did in 2012 and 2013, including a session with the Court of Appeal for Ontario. At that time, I coined the phrase “crowdsourcing sexual terrorism” to describe these activities. It had a nice ring to it, and a number of people urged me to keep it. I decided that “terrorism” was a bit too loaded. I still wonder about that.
Click here to read the paper on the open-access Social Sciences Research Network.