Perceptual differences of victims of non-consensual intimate image dissemination between UK and Norwegian respondents

In popular media, ‘revenge pornography’ refers to the non-consensual sharing of intimate images (NCSII) of another. Despite victims of NCSII facing pervasive and long-term consequences, they still face victim-blaming attitudes from the public. Extant literature has typically sampled from countries where NCSII has long been illegal, such as the United Kingdom (UK); neglecting perspectives from countries that lacked NCSII-specific legislation, such as Norway at the time of data collection. Participants (n = 477) from the UK and Norway responded to vignettes depicting NCSII, which differed in terms of the victim-perpetrator relationship depicted (i.e., casual vs. committed). Controlling for participant sex and psychopathic personality traits (previously implicated in judgements of image-based sexual abuse more broadly), UK citizens perceived NCSII to have worse impacts on the victims than Norwegian citizens. Moreover, data trends suggested participants attributed increased victim blame in vignettes featuring casual relationships, with higher self-reported psychopathic personality traits predicting judgements associated with viewing NCSII as less criminal in nature. These findings emphasise a need to better understand the role of legislation in public perceptions of NCSII (and image-based sexual abuse more broadly) and the need to be conscious about further exploring technology-facilitated crime internationally.