The psychological and emotional impacts of shared sexually explicit material on victims : professionals’ insights’

Abstract

This research delves into professionals' perspectives on the psychological and emotional damage inflicted on victims of sharing sexually explicit material. Sexually explicit material (SEM) involves the sharing of intimate content primarily through photos, videos, or texts. This mainly occurs between two individuals who are in a romantic relationship or who seek sexual activities. However, this content could become illegal if an individual distributed it without consent. The methodology employed for this research was qualitative, where semi structured interviews with numerous professionals were conducted. The interviewed professionals comprised members from different departments within the Malta Police Force and a qualified psychotherapist. These participants were chosen as they encountered several cases regarding the dissemination of sexually explicit material; therefore, they could provide thorough answers about this subject. Throughout the interviews, open-ended questions were used, allowing the participants to give elaborated and detailed responses. After the data was obtained from the interviews, it was comprehensively analysed through the thematic analysis procedure, where the main findings were identified and compared to existing literature. The findings exhibit that revenge porn is the most common motive in terms of non-consensual sharing of SEM in Malta. This motive was followed by two other motives- blackmail and financial gain. Moreover, women and individuals who are tech illiterate and are not aware of such criminalities seem to be most at risk of becoming victims of such crime. Additionally, victims of SEM usually suffer from psychological and emotional impacts such as humiliation, shame, depression and anxiety, with some cases escalating into suicidal attempts. Although this dissertation corresponds with present literature, a research gap was found regarding the topic of sexually explicit material within the Maltese context.