Short-Term and Long-Term Impacts of Financial Sextortion on Victim’s Mental Well-Being
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 sextort...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2023
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| In: |
Journal of interpersonal violence
Year: 2023, Volume: 38, Issue: 13/14, Pages: 8563-8592 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Keywords: |
| Summary: | 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. |
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| ISSN: | 1552-6518 |
| DOI: | 10.1177/08862605231156416 |