Technology-Facilitated Abuse gets Smarter: Evolving Power Dynamics and Consequences for Sexual Violence Policies

Patel T

Published on: 2021-08-24

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been described as the driver behind the fourth industrial revolution, characterised by an increasing number of mundane objects being connected to the internet in order for users to control them remotely. This paper focuses on the uncertainties being created by software developers of these products, and the impact this has on survivors of technology-facilitated domestic abuse. Based on a series of focus groups with front line workers in women’s support services, many of whom are previous victims of abuse, I argue these uncertainties in IoT device capabilities allow for a transition away from forms of abuse aligned with punishment towards those closer aligned to discipline. I demonstrate that when care for vulnerable people is needed to be served on an individual scale, legislation is often viewed as compartmentalized and fails to reflect social forces exerted on the individual leading to a sense of injustice. Policies created to regulate technology companies allow them to avoid liability of users’ actions and coercive control legislation solely hold perpetrators to account without taking into account the wider abuse dynamic. This paper calls into question a need for the policy making system to be changed due to the perspective of survivors.