Short-Term and Long-Term Impacts of Financial Sextortion on Victim’s Mental Well-Being
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2023
Keywords
internet and abuse, mental health and violence, sexual harassment
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605231156416
Abstract
Sextortion occurs when an individual threatens to distribute a victim’s intimate images, videos, or information unless they comply with the perpetrator’s demands. In financially motivated sextortion, these demands include payment of a ransom. Despite global increases in financially motivated sextortion victimization, there is limited research on the psychological impacts of this type of victimization. Leveraging 332 threads (3,276 posts) from a popular sextortion support forum, the purpose of this research was to use inductive qualitative methods to understand how financially motivated sextortion impacts victims’ mental well-being, their online engagement, and how they process and deal with these impacts. The results illustrate four main concepts: short-term impacts, long-term impacts, coping strategies, and getting better over time. Short-term impacts included worry, stress, anxiety, self-blame, and somatic symptoms of stress. Long-term impacts included enduring episodes of anxiety. Some sources of coping reported by forum users were to confide in a trusted friend, stay offline, or seek professional mental health care. Despite these impacts, many forum members expressed a sense that their anxiety and distress “get better overtime,” a concept that was assisted through active coping strategies.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Journal of Interpersonal Violence, v. 38, issue 13-14, p. 8563-8592
Scholar Commons Citation
O'Malley, Roberta, "Short-Term and Long-Term Impacts of Financial Sextortion on Victim’s Mental Well-Being" (2023). Criminology Faculty Publications. 76.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cjp_facpub/76
