Digitale media kunnen ingezet worden voor het plegen van geweld in de verschillende fasen van een partnerrelatie, zoals de datingfase, het onderhouden van de relatie maar ook tijdens en na het beëindigen van de relatie. In de context van digitaal partnergeweld kunnen beelden en misbruik van beelden een belangrijke rol spelen. In deze bijdrage bieden we een overzicht van de vormen van digitaal partnergeweld die kunnen voorkomen in verschillende fasen van de relatie en de stand van kennis op dit gebied. Ook bespreken we de impact die dit heeft op het slachtoffer, welke copingmechanismen ze kunnen inzetten, waaronder het inschakelen van het persoonlijke sociale netwerk en eventuele professionele hulp. De rol van de politie en andere stakeholders wordt eveneens toegelicht.@en

Sexting concerns the act of sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit messages or photos (i.e., ‘sexts’) through electronic means. When sexts are received or forwarded without the consent of the original sender, this is called non-consensual sexting. Our study set out to increase our understanding as to why individuals engage in non-consensual sext forwarding, by examining the role of sexting intentions, attitudes, and experience with non-consensual sext receiving. Data were collected through a cross-sectional survey among a sample of 218 Belgian adults. Of this total sample, 169 (Mage = 25.85 years, 73.4% women) respondents had at least once received a sext from someone, resulting in a subsample of 169 respondents for the present study. Correlation analyses showed that non-consensual forwarding of sexts was significantly positively linked to stronger attitudes towards the risks of sexting and to experiences of non-consensual sext receiving. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that non-consensual sext forwarding was significantly linked to negative attitudes about sexting, but that this significant link disappeared when non-consensual sext receiving was included as a predictor in the model. Thus, our findings show that non-consensual sext forwarding is primarily linked to non-consensual sext receiving, suggesting that individuals who experience non-consensual sexting as a recipient are inclined to non-consensually forward a sext themselves regardless of their attitudes about (the risks of) sexting. This suggests that non-consensual sexting behaviours may be driven by social learning and/or impulsive decision-making processes, indicating an important avenue for future research.@en