Sharing and/or threatening to share private, sexual images without consent as an emerging strategy of coercive control

This chapter will situate the non-consensual creation and distribution of naked and/or sexual, private images (‘intimate image abuse’) as one of a number of coercive control strategies that have emerged with the recent rise in digital technologies. Sharing and/or threatening to share intimate images will be shown to be highly effective tactics by which abusive partners disempower and control victims, undermining their autonomy and preventing them from seeking help or ending the relationship. Recognising intimate image abuse as an integral component of the overall picture of domestic violence and abuse (DVA), and understanding the ways in which it operates to keep victims entrapped in abusive relationships, is therefore now vital in enabling those working in this area to identify coercive control and make more accurate assessments of risk. A gendered analysis explains why threats to share intimate images are particularly powerful tools of coercion and control over women and girls.