"Image-Based Sexual Abuse: Extending Culpability to the 'Cyber-Mob'"

Wed. Oct. 23 12:30 PM - Wed. Oct. 23 01:30 PM
Location: 1L13

The next speaker in the CJ Speaker Series for 2019-2020 will be Shannon Russell: Image-Based Sexual Abuse: Extending Culpability to the "Cyber-Mob".

Abstract:

In recent years, significant attention has been played to the role of technology and the Internet in facilitating sexual violence and harassment, including “image-based sexual abuse” or “revenge porn”. In response, a number of jurisdictions have introduced laws to address these harmful behaviours. For example, in Canada, the non-consensual distribution of intimate images has been a criminal offence since 2015. This captures the actions of those who distribute or otherwise share a person’s intimate images without consent but not those who look at such images without consent (the “cyber-mob”).  I argue that looking at a person’s intimate images, knowing that they did not consent to their images being available for viewing, contributes towards a broader societal harm. Intentionally accessing a person’s image without their consent draws upon a culture that legitimizes non-consensual sexual practices, whilst simultaneously helping to reinforce and sustain such practices. As such, I propose the introduction of two new offences into the Criminal Code of Canada, namely the non-consensual access and the non-consensual possession of intimate images

Bio:

Shannon Russell (she/her) is a contract academic staff member within the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Winnipeg. She obtained an MSc Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Oxford and an LLB Law degree from the University of Edinburgh. Shannon is also in the final stages of a research-based LLM Law at the University of British Columbia, which was funded by the Law Foundation of British Columbia and the Leverhulme Trust. Shannon is interested in how the law upholds structures of power and oppression. Her research interests lie primarily in criminal law, refugee law and family law, relying on feminist, queer and intersectional perspectives.