As a man walks away with a caution for revenge porn against a 15-year-old, there are urgent questions to be asked

We need to challenge a narrative that says psychological harm doesn't matter so long as no physical harm was done

The practice of 'revenge porn' is becoming increasingly widespread (Corbis)

Earlier this week, it was revealed that a man who targeted five female victims, including a 15-year-old girl, with ‘revenge porn’ was given a caution, rather than charged with criminal activity, after he admitted to the police that he had made and distributed the images. The girl’s mother has spoken of her distress that no criminal prosecution will take place despite the man’s confession and the number of victims. The police defended the decision, saying they felt it was “appropriate” under the circumstances.

Data suggests that this sad case represents a widespread problem in which police fail to prosecute for ‘revenge porn’. In 61 per cent of cases reported to the police, no further action is taken against the alleged perpetrator. While sexual violence has notoriously low conviction rates, revenge porn should be a much easier crime to prove as the presence of the photos in the first place amounts to significant evidence. Meanwhile, IP addresses and other online digital footprints are incriminating information which police can also use as evidence. Yet despite this, something appears to be going seriously wrong in how these cases are handled and addressed.

A possible reason for this could be how revenge porn encapsulates many archaic rape myths, distilled into new and technologically advanced forms. Since time immemorial, societies have done their best to insist that sexual abuse doesn’t really hurt its victims beyond short-term physical damage. Misguided tropes fail to understand that sexual violence is not always about physical harm and more often about psychological trauma, personal autonomy and human dignity.

In the 1970s, when child sexual abuse was finally acknowledged by doctors and legislators, public opinion was split over whether it mattered. It was argued that because many children were not physically wounded by the rapes that happened to them in the family, it was somehow less significant or damaging than stereotypical, violent “stranger jumping out of the alleyway” rapes.

Feminists successfully argued that it was not solely blood or bruising which represented the harm of rape, but the psychological impact as well. Thankfully, this is now accepted by most people and is reflected in most legislation around the world.

With revenge porn, feminists face a similar barrier. There may be complacency in the criminal justice system and wider society because many assume that sexual offences carried out with a computer by someone thousands of miles away are somehow not truly ‘real’ because a victim has not been physically hurt. But the harm incurred goes much further than this.

Our criminal justice system and wider society already struggle far too often to see victims of sexual offences as ‘real people’ or to acknowledge their pain and trauma as valid. Technology assisted sexual offenders can exploit this tension to commit crimes such as revenge porn, knowing they may not be held to account in the same way as perpetrators of other crimes due to their seemingly abstract nature.

It’s a bleak but crucial reminder that the fight against sexual violence is nowhere near being declared won. Rather, where old loopholes have been identified and closed, new ones evolve and emerge. The next battle appears to be insisting on human compassion in an increasingly abstract and digital age; these crimes still harm their victims, whether or not it’s from behind a screen.