Image Based Sexual Abuse in Singapore

Dr Laura Vitis1
1Queensland University Of Technology (qut), Brisbane, Australia

Image Based Sexual Abuse (IBSA) is readily becoming a key site of analysis for criminologists, particularly feminist scholars seeking to exploring the expanding modalities of violence against women and girls. However, much of the existing empirical scholarship focused on mapping IBSA has been produced within the US, UK, Canada and Australia and there is limited research on this phenomenon within South East Asia. To address this gap, this paper presents findings from an exploratory research project which examined whether IBSA was evident in the case summaries, legal session reports and case management notes collated by a Singaporean women’s, advocacy and support organisation focused on sexual assault support provision. Drawing from this data, this paper highlights Singaporean women’s experiences of IBSA and reports on the range of IBSA evident in these cases. Paying particular attention to: some of the key differences in the IBSA types and contexts presented these findings, as compared to those reported from data emerging in Western nations, and the role of the wider Singaporean socio-political landscape in shaping some of these IBSA modalities.


Biography:
My research focuses on how technology is used to facilitate gendered, sexual and intimate partner violence. In addition, my work also examines the regulation of and resistance to technologically facilitated violence, youth sexting and the role of risk in the Sex Offender Register. My recent publications include the 2017 edited collection for Routledge entitled Gender, Technology and Violence (with Marie Segrave). I have recently moved to Queensland from Singapore, where I was teaching at the University of Liverpool in Singapore (ULiS)