Heather A. Turner

Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) during childhood and adolescence is linked to substantial mental health risk, yet harms are not experienced uniformly. This study tested moderators of the association between cumulative IBSA exposure (number of IBSA forms endorsed before age 18) and psychological distress, suicide attempts, and self-harm in a diverse U.S. convenience sample of 2,854 young adults who reported 4,205 incidents of IBSA during childhood or adolescence. In fully adjusted models, the main effects of cumulative IBSA exposure were not statistically significant; however, its associations with mental health outcomes varied across incident, developmental, and sociodemographic characteristics. Childhood adversity and sex assigned at birth moderated the association with psychological distress. Dating-partner involvement and repeated victimization moderated the association with suicide attempts, while adult-perpetrator involvement, explicit sexual content, racial or ethnic minority status, and educational attainment moderated the association with self-harm. Commercial involvement was associated with higher odds of suicide attempts but lower odds of self-harm. These findings underscore the importance of trauma-informed, context-sensitive responses that account for heterogeneity in survivors’ experiences and vulnerabilities.

Advancements in digital communication and imaging technologies have created new avenues for online victimization of youth, including image-based sexual abuse (IBSA). Based on an online survey of 2,652 young adults ages 18–29, the current study examined characteristics of different forms of IBSA experienced before the age of 18 (nonconsensual sending of images, threatened/pressured production, threatened sharing, self-produced image-sharing with someone older, commercial sexual exploitation) and risk factors among different sexual and gender identity groups. Findings show that most forms of IBSA start at ages 13–15, are frequent in occurrence, are interrelated, and differ across sexual and gender identity, with sexual and gender minority (SGM) female individuals most likely to be exposed. Several important risk factors were significantly related to experiencing any IBSA but differed in their relevance across different sexual and gender identity groups. For example, in-person sexual abuse and social networks’ image-sharing with strangers had particularly strong associations with IBSA among SGM male individuals, early sexual initiation was most strongly related to IBSA among heterosexual female individuals, and peer norms favoring sexual image-sharing with friends/acquaintances had the strongest association to IBSA among SGM female individuals. Implications for youth-targeted prevention strategies are discussed.

Child abuse in youth-serving organizations (YSO) is an increasingly referenced topic, but it currently has a limited epidemiological foundation. A body of research is beginning to shed light on this abuse, and this scoping review was aimed at better documenting what is currently known. The review specifically examined published and gray literature on child abuse in YSOs across several subcategories: daycare, detention/juvenile justice, healthcare, recreation, religion, residential, schools, and sports. A total of 112 academic papers and 28 gray literature resources were reviewed for the first 7 sectors, and a 2023 review was summarized for the daycare sector. Findings highlight that the definitions and measurement of maltreatment in YSOs vary, and significant research gaps remain. Some sectors of YSOs have better coverage than others: for example, more on residential settings and detention/juvenile justice, while less on healthcare settings. Recommendations include a need for: (a) more multi-sector YSO epidemiological studies measuring various forms of abuse; (b) modifications to general child maltreatment surveys to specify YSO settings and YSO staff and volunteers; (c) modifications to existing police or child protection data systems to allow for classification of abuse in YSO settings or by YSO staff and volunteers.

Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) is a growing global issue with significant psychological impacts, yet few validated tools assess childhood experiences. This study provides information on a newly developed IBSA Scale designed to capture the accumulating burden of multiple distinct dimensions of IBSA. The study included 6226 U.S. participants aged 18–28, with an oversampling of IBSA experiences (prior to age of 18) and of sexual and gender minority individuals. Psychometric evaluation involved Exploratory Graph Analysis (EGA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were conducted to assess the scale’s structure. Convergent validity was tested using peer norms and online risky behaviors, and discriminant validity with social connectedness. EGA confirmed a cohesive structure and 100% stability of all items, confirmed by CFA (χ ² (9) = 102.17, p < .01, CFI = .99, RMSEA = .041). Convergent validity was demonstrated by moderate correlations with peer norms (rmean = .41) and online risky behaviors (rmean = .24). Discriminant validity was confirmed with low correlations with social connectedness (rmean = −.06). Sociodemographic analysis revealed higher IBSA scores among females, sexual and gender minority individuals, and participants with lower-income ( p < .001). The IBSA scale is a promising tool for measuring the cumulative burden of different IBSA experiences.

Hate crimes not only target individuals but aim to cause fear in groups of people. However, in many hate crime investigations, individual victims are not identified. To understand these cases better, this chapter presents data from the National Hate Crime Investigation Study (NHCIS), a survey of law enforcement agencies across the US about hate crime investigations that occurred in 2018. Findings indicate that hate crime cases with no identified victims were more likely to be property crimes and motivated by religious bias and were less likely to include identified suspects. For cases without identified victims, witness statements predicted a greater likelihood of identifying suspects. Law enforcement training programs should emphasize the importance of identifying individual victims in hate crime cases, and when this is not possible, enhanced attention should be given to improving documentation, identifying offenders, and vocally supporting communities.

Many new surveys have been developed to assess the prevalence of online sexual abuse. An important type of question asked in many of these surveys is about online sexual solicitation. However, not all sexual solicitations of children necessarily qualify as sexual abuse as it has conventionally been defined. Sexual solicitations from other same age youth may be legal and nonabusive. Solicitations of youth above the age of consent by adults may also be legal. At the same time, many true online sex offenses may not be identified with questions about solicitation wanted or unwanted. This article reviewed 25 online sexual abuse survey reports. It also examined episodes and narratives from the U.S. National Technology Facilitated Abuse (TFA) survey, which asked about online solicitation and other online sexual offenses. Among the surveys reviewed, 9 of 25 elicited and counted online sexual solicitation from adults only, but the rest counted other youth solicitors as well as adults. Eight of 25 asked about only “unwanted” solicitations, but the rest had no such qualification, possibly including solicitations with positive or neutral reactions. Analysis of the TFA survey showed that in over half of solicitation episodes, the recipients did not actually know the age or identity of the solicitor. Very large differences in prevalence rates can occur depending on what types of solicitation are counted and how missing information is classified. Recommendations are made about classifying and reporting on findings about online solicitation.

This paper describes incident characteristics and dynamics associated with six specific forms of image-based sexual exploitation and abuse of children (IBSEAC). Data were collected on a national sample of 2639 individuals aged 18-to-28 from a probability-based online panel. Respondents completed a self-administered survey questionnaire, providing detailed follow-up information on their experiences of image-based sexual victimization before the age of 18. A total of 607 incidents of IBSEAC were included in the analyses. Findings show substantial diversity in incident characteristics within and across the six forms of IBSEAC (nonconsensual sharing of sexual images, nonconsensual taking or making of images, forced image recruitment, threatened sharing, voluntary image sharing with an older adult, and commercial sexual exploitation involving images). Some notable patterns include frequent involvement of perpetrators who are other youth or young adults, who are known in-person to the victim, and who are intimate partners. The diversity and complexity of dynamics revealed in this study underscores the need for careful design and evaluation of prevention programs and the core messages directed at youth.

Importance: Digital communication and imaging technologies have created new opportunities for technology-facilitated abuse (TFA) and necessitate a better understanding of how and why the risk for TFA varies across different groups of youths.Objectives: To compare the prevalence of TFA among youths across 5 different sexual and gender identity groups, and to identify risk factors that may explain variations in TFA risk.Design, Setting, and Participants: A US nationally representative online survey was conducted among 2639 young adults recruited from the KnowledgePanel online panel from November 19 to December 29, 2021. Individuals aged 18 to 28 years were asked retrospectively about TFA and a variety of other youth experiences in childhood (aged <18 years).Main Outcomes and Measures: Participants were asked about their sexual and gender identities, 11 types of TFA occurring before the age of 18 years, and several potential risk factors. Prevalence rates of any TFA were compared across sexual and gender identity groups, and analyses were conducted to identify risk factors that help explain group differences. Weights were developed to compensate for gender, education, race and ethnicity, household income, census region, and metropolitan status disproportions.Results: Among the 2510 respondents (mean [SD] age, 24.8 [2.8] years) who provided gender and sexual identity information, 46.5% (95% CI, 41.9%-51.1%) were cisgender heterosexual females, 25.2% (95% CI, 21.6%-29.1%) were cisgender sexual minority females, 18.3% (95% CI, 14.4%-22.9%) were cisgender heterosexual males, 6.8% (95% CI, 4.6%-9.9%) were cisgender sexual minority males, and 3.3% (95% CI, 2.0%-5.4%) were gender minority individuals. The prevalence of TFA occurring before the age of 18 years was highest among sexual minority females (55.3%; 95% CI, 48.0%-62.4%) and gender minority individuals (53.4%; 95% CI, 33.5%-72.2%). Rates of sexting were highest among cisgender sexual minority females (38.8%; 95% CI, 19.1%-58.8%) and gender minority individuals (36.7%; 95% CI, 19.1%-58.8%) and represented the strongest risk factor for TFA exposure (odds ratio, 5.7; 95% CI, 4.0-8.0). However, it explained little variation in TFA across groups once early in-person adversity, sexual abuse, bullying, and maltreatment were taken into account.Conclusions and Relevance: This study demonstrates the risk of TFA among sexual and gender minority youths and the need to target prevention efforts toward these vulnerable groups. In addition to strategies to reduce risky behavior, efforts to lower the risk of early sexual abuse, bullying, and maltreatment are likely to also be effective in decreasing TFA among these marginalized groups.

Accurate and detailed information on the nature of hate crimes in the United States has been hindered by limitations in the compiling of hate crime statistics. The National Hate Crime Investigation Study (NHCIS) collected data from a nationally representative sample of law enforcement agencies across the U.S. about the numbers of hate crimes investigated during 2018. Results show differences in a variety of case characteristics across four major categories of bias motivation (race/ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation/gender identity, and disability). Results suggest that police may miss hate crimes with bias motivations that are not clearly connected to common culturally recognized indicators. Training around non-stereotypical hate crime cases may help to identify and strengthen hate crime evidence.

This study looked at experiences of help-seeking from websites and police following an episode of technology-facilitated abuse. It used data from a nationally representative online panel of adults aged 18 to 28, sampled from Ipsos Knowledge Panel. A total of 1,952 unique victimization episodes from childhood and adulthood were identified and used in analyses. Participants were asked about whether they experienced 11 different types of technology-facilitated abuse (TFA), whether the incident was reported to the website or police, barriers to reporting, and features of the website’s or law enforcement’s response. Other follow-up information included victim gender, age, relationship to the perpetrator, and negative emotional impact (NEI) associated with the incident. Results found very low rates of reporting to both websites (7.3%) and law enforcement (4.8%). Image-based offenses had higher rates of reporting. A greater NEI significantly increased the odds of reporting to each source. Participants were largely unsatisfied with response from websites and police. Only 42.2% said the website did something helpful and only 29.8% found police helpful. Our findings suggest a need for major improvements in how websites and law enforcement respond to victims of technology-facilitated offenses. They need to have more helpful information and more ways of offering support. Websites need more specifics about the types of violations that warrant reporting, clearer signposts, and encouragement about how to get help and a better publicized commitment to a rapid and serious review. Law enforcement needs more education and training to avoid dismissive and judgmental reactions and to ensure sympathetic and respectful responses.