The Limits of Criminal Law And Justice ‘Revenge Porn’ Criminalisation, Hybrid Responses, And The Ideal Victim

Abstract

This comment is a response to Alyse Dickson’s article in this volume entitled ‘Revenge Porn: A Victim Focused Response’. Part I considers the challenges that ‘revenge pornography’ raises and considers the difficulties of controlling aberrant sexualised conduct in circumstances where modern technology provides an almost limitless capacity to capture and distribute private images. Part II looks at the wider socio-cultural context, the gendered and sexualised assumptions of hetero-normativity and warns of the risks of overlooking ‘hidden’ individuals or groups that do not align with normative discourses of the ideal victim.