Abstract

In this seminar, based on Home Office funded research, the increasing ways that digital technologies are being used by domestic abuse perpetrators to monitor, threaten, and humiliate their victims, will be discussed. Technology-facilitated domestic abuse (TFDA) is progressively employed within controlling and coercive relationships and involves a wide range of abusive behaviours including: the use of spyware to access and accounts and monitor victim’s movements, the creation of fake accounts to harass or impersonate victims, the use of covert devices and the Internet of Things to stalk victims, and image-based sexual abuse to degrade victims. The ease, availability, and familiarity of everyday technologies means that technical skills are unnecessary to perpetuate most forms of TFDA , meaning these tools are routinely exploited by perpetrators. The harms of TFDA are no less serious than those arising from other forms of coercive and controlling behaviours and physical violence. Offline and online abuse is interconnected and within the context of domestic abuse, often co-occurring. The rapidly developing specific instances and tactics of TFDA , however, are often inadequately considered or overlooked in policy, legislative and support responses.