Justice for intimate image abuse victim-survivors

Beyond the Takedown: Noncriminal Redress after Intimate Image-Based Abuse imagines what support and justice for victim-survivors of intimate image-based abuse (IIBA) can look like beyond content removal and carceral systems. Our paper proposes a government-funded, non-criminal redress scheme for victim-survivors of IIBA and potentially other forms of tech-facilitated gender-based harm in the UK. We imagine non-criminal redress as a viable route to facilitating justice, and see it as a requirement to repair and address IIBA violations, focusing on victim-survivors’ immediate and long-term needs.

Our paper was preceded by a landscape review by BRK Ujima, which highlighted three key investments to support noncriminal redress:

• educational programmes and public awareness campaigns to help prevent and respond to IIBA

• culturally relevant approaches for demographics that experience barriers to accessing support

• support services to address the mental health impact of IIBA on victim-survivors

We acknowledge that content takedown is an immediate need for victim-survivors for redress to begin to work. Our desire is for a noncriminal redress scheme to be part of a broader system that provides compensation to victim-survivors beyond their initial report.