A comparison of judgements of image-based and physical sexual abuse: A pilot study

Despite emerging literature in the field of image-based sexual abuse (IBSA; e.g., so-called “revenge pornography”) indicating a high, international prevalence of perpetration as well as severe social-, professional-, and healthrelated impacts, it remains unclear how judgements of IBSA compare to cases of physical, sexual abuse (PSA; e.g., rape). Objectives. This study aimed to understand whether judgements of offending behaviour differ between physical and imagebased sexual abuse types, and whether such differences were further impacted by the sex of the victim. Methods. This pilot study (n = 76, Mage = 29.75, SD = 10.48) compared judgement scores of vignettes that were differentiated by offence-type (IBSA vs. PSA) and victim sex (male vs. female), whilst controlling for beliefs about revenge pornography. Results. Data derived from a 2×2 ANCOVA indicated that participants reported more lenient judgements of vignettes that depicted IBSA, relative to PSA, but no main effect of victim sex nor interaction thereof. Moreover, endorsement of beliefs about revenge pornography predicted more lenient judgements of IBSA, but not PSA. Conclusion and Implication. Despite the need for large-scale replications of this pilot study to fully model the reported effects in the context of further moderators and covariates, results indicate a need for education as to the impacts of IBSA on an (inter)national scale.