Policy Brief on Cyberspace Gendered Harassment in Australia

truandjust2011
Aug 22, 2023
12 min read

Informing online gendered harassment from cultural criminology perspectives

by Sonia Lim

Executive Summary
Introduction
Research and Evidence
Policy Recommendations
Conclusions
Bibliography

1. Executive Summary

The policy brief looks specifically at gendered cyber harassment against women. It proposes a holistic approach of offline education programs and online prevention platforms to reduce the problematic behavior. In doing that, it will use cultural criminology perspectives to explain why this solution is most effective today.

2. Introduction

Defining Online Harassment

According to E-safety Commissioner ( 2017 ), cyber-abuse is defined as online behavior that seriously threatens, intimidates, harasses or humiliates an individual. This behavior has the intention to harm the victim psychologically, socially or even physically. It includes inappropriate online behaviors from trolling, flaming, image-based sexual abuse, stalking, harassing to racism and hate speech.

Gendered Online Harassment as a highly widespread Global Problem

With the emergence of cyberspace, individuals are presented with numerous new ways to express their voice regardless of their offline authority and social status ( Suler 2004, p. 322 ). However, groups including women, LGBT and minorities that are marginalized in offline space are experiencing similar experiences of oppression, harassment and even violence ( Boyd et al. 2013 ). Studies in the UK found that females are victimized 5 times more than males are and that 99% of the cases are committed by men ( Catalano et al. 2009 ; Garcia & MacManimon 2011, p. 2 ). In Australia, almost half of all Australian women have experienced online harassment via social media and online discussion platforms, out of whom most are under 30 ( Gender Equity Victoria 2018 ). Moreover, the harm imposed on victims have serious implications ranging from aving low confidence and panic attacks to lack of sleep or concentration for long periods of time or even violence ( Amnesty International 2018 ). Yet, online harassment is often dismissed as ‘trivial’ by crime-fighting agents. In fact, even many cultural criminologists ( mainly male ) downplay online harassment by framing offenders as misunderstood and that the flames merely represent ‘harmless humour’ ( Jane 2012, p. 539 ; Ferrell, Hayward & Young 2008).

3. Research and Evidence

Cultural Criminology

Cultural criminology is an interdisciplinary field traditionally drawn from a sociological perspective inspired by the Chicago school and 1970s Marxist notions, which is then recently developed in the mid-1990s ( Hayward 2018 ). As Hayward ( 2018 ) explains, this theory views crime, its agencies and institutions within a cultural context that carries a symbolic meaning and emotional aspects about social identity and structural relations in power. While a statistical report could inform about a crime, this discipline gives a more in-depth understanding of the nature of the crime and how it came about ( Benjamin 1969, p. 91 ). As Presdee ( 2001, p. 16 ) explains, a crime has to be defined through the social and cultural processes: for example, a murder may be regarded as a right and pleasurable criminal act unless it is defined otherwise.

The Dynamics of Power, Masculinity and Online Harassment

The process of becoming a criminal can be explained by a culture that is created by those in power who define specific meanings of the crime he or she commits ( Presdee 2001, p. 17 ). With regards to gendered harassment online, it can be explained that the masculine nature of technology has led male users to feel the need to protect their dominance in cyberspace ( Kendall 2002 ). By committing the behavior, offenders inflict a pain onto the victim that elicits a thrill of domination symbolic of domination on the internet; to the victim, on the other hand, this pain is publically derogatory and humiliating which elicits fear to express themselves or to equally share cyberspace with their dominating counterparts ( Ferrell, Hayward & Young 2008, p. 11 ). Through the circuitry use of the internet, the symbolic dynamics played out online reproduces and reinforces unequal power relations that plays a major role in designing gendered communication cultures exclusively for interests of the dominant male user ( Salter 2016, p. 5 ). This intention of male users to colonize this new domain is unfriendly to women as they assert their control by inflicting online violence which gives a message out to women that they are unwelcomed ‘outsiders that need to be put back in their traditional places’ ( Higgin 2015, p. 3 ).

It is the gendered culture, not the technology.

Some of E-Safety Commissioner responses include supporting victims with resources to help them manage tech risks such as having strong passwords on hackable technologies ( Boyd et al. 2013 ). Likewise, Amnesty International ( 2018 ) recommended tech-related solutions that encourage online platforms should empower female victims to block and disengage with the offender ( Hess & Walter 2014, p. 105). From a cultural perspective, however, tech solutions may work temporarily, but unless the cultural scripts that normalize suppressive gendered attitudes in the offline world are changed - gendered harassment online will prevail. Empowering female victims to block and disengage with the offender only displaces the offense that can be recreated through unlimited social platforms. Worse still, the gendered attitudes which are responsible for online harassment is ´left to be dealt with´ later by silencing the women instead of instantaneously resolving on the spot.

Transgression of the offline gendered culture into cyberspace

While gendered harassment online is facilitated by the internet, it is not necessarily caused by it ( Fileborn 2018 ). As she further explains, online gendered harassment is an ´old wine in new bottles´ issue. Women will continue getting abused online as long as its dominant culture is defined by men who hold a large share of political, economical and social power ( Lewis et al. 2017, p. 2 ). This implies that gendered rather than technical responses may need to be the focus. As Bayme ( 2015, p. 1 ) explains, the internet has disintegrated the boundaries between the offline and online world. Hence, the key to understanding this issue is by recognizing the similarity as well as differences present in communicative culture that transgress both worlds ( Stratton, Powell & Cameron 2016, p. 8 ). Historical structures of gender inequality have normalized practices that usually blamed women for stepping out of their traditional roles ( Garcia & McManimon 2016, p. 2 ). Through online platforms, these norms are transgressed into the circuitry of daily life as they feed into an individual’s desire to be seen as they are celebrated by the public for their criminality is amplified and multiplied ( Yar 2012, p. 250 ). Further, disinhibition factors like online anonymity and the growth of multinational social media industries create a market online culture. This ´pockets people´s experiences and emotions are pocketed to serve a ‘highlight reel’ of entertainment ( Ferrell, Hayward & Young, p. 10 - 15 ).

Building Authentic Resistance and a respectful culture

Gendered social norms need to be dealt with for long run safe spaces online. Kane ( 2004, p. 310 ) states that as hostile comments online are packaged for optimal consumerism which further necessitates and reinforces traditional offline structural relations, strategies need to substitute the stereotypical insights carried within its message.To do this, authentic resistance needs to be built. This does not mean, however, that the issue needs to be criminalized as this may only backfire or amplify the problem. Criminalizing the issue would only subvert its purpose because the vast online corporate platforms have taken on criminal acts and its illicit meanings to sharpen the ‘coolness’ of their commodities for mass marketing and entertainment purposes ( Ferrell, Hayward & Young, p. 19 ; Lyng & Bracey 1995 ). Deliberately attacking this ‘cool’ corporate culture may risks of psychological exclusion of individuals who stood up against it. It may also further restrict their civic engagement online ( Citron and Norton 2011 ).

4. Policy Recommendations

Education Programs And Online Platforms

According to Li’s ( 2007, p. 448 ) studies based in Canada showed that the majority of cyber victims chose to be silent and restrict online chatting to remain safe. As discussed above, removing oneself from online engagement does not solve gendered attitudes responsible for online harassment. Instead, education awareness programs need to target potential users from students of all ages to employees and organizations. They need to be integrated in school and work programs as well as online platforms. These programs need to educate cyber victims how to establish a respectful and resilient culture where kind behavior towards one another is encouraged and rewarded ( Faucher et al. 2014; E-Safety Commissioner 2017 ). Organizations with hyper-masculine cultures which reward male “go-getters” and punish those who have outside work ( especially women with children at home ) only strengthens gendered stereotypes: as up to 64% of all women employees experienced some form of harassment at work, it would not be surprising that such inappropriate attitudes will permeate across online platforms and be multiplied ( Heap 2017 ). Gendered attitudes online also have to be achieved from within existing boundaries because denouncing the existing corporatist internet culture, as discussed before, would only lead to backlash against cyber victims ( Presdee 2001, p. 16 ). To keep up with a high consumerism online culture where everything ( illicit or not ) is commodified because ‘it is fun’ and pleasurable for the average consumer, these programs need to be just as eye-catching to compete for any user´s attention in a highly corporate framework. More effort has to be taken in collection of evidence for prosecutions: victims should keep a record of calls, and messages that may be targeted against them ( Australian Human Rights Commission 2011 ).

As findings in research of Butler et al ( 2011, p. 14 ) show, very few schools acknowledge cyberbullying. It is recommended that education programs need to enhance the understanding of what online harassment is while simultaneously raising the awareness that it can take many forms and is not limited to any one definition. It is also important to let the community know that harms suffered by cyber victims are legitimate and “real” despite the lack of physical consequences ( West 2011, p. 150ñ Franks 2011, p. 226 ). The content of the program can contain three orders of psychological, emotional or avoidance impacts inflicted by cyberbullying as explained by Spitzberg and Cupach (2007, p. 73 ). To make the content more relatable, having cyber victims can run these programs and speak to targeted audiences in which they share their experiences, especially when victim’s experience have not been thoroughly researched as of yet today ( Lewis 2017 , p. 2 ). This will help subvert vile behavior online as the audience builds sympathy by listening to victims experiences. Not only will this ´kind of content reinforce a respectful culture offline and hence online, but it will also help reverse the factors of disinhibitions of cyberspace that amplify the vilification of gendered abuse ( Suler 2004, p. 324 ). It will also help subvert the emotional gratifications by inducing rational thought into all users, especially when illicit online culture is commodified and packaged as a form of entertainment. Victims´anecdotes could induce a strong negative emotion within any user that may act as a punitive mechanism to build ‘authenthic resistance’ against illicit behavior celebrated by corporations ( Winlow 2008, p. 83 ). This may help change perceptions and attitudes that contribute to problematic behaviors online (Bayme 2015 ).

The second policy recommendation is having an online platform for victims where the education program mentioned above is also included. For more inclusivity, as Madeleine ( 2016 p. 111 ) suggested, the department of education has to be involved so that many employees, family members, students and organizations can gain access to these programs offline and online. Madeleine also further recommends that communities should cooperate to form networks in which victims can share and report cases. In fact, Nagarajan (2016) had an online platform which promotes a feminist culture to bring girls together globally in fighting against harassment. On the website, participants will be able engage in discussions with other female victims, feel a sense of belonging and freely express their opinions by expressing what they feel about the issue. Couple with a respectful culture developed by the education programs, such online platform allows women to play a major role in reshaping existing gendered power relations. A holistic preventative online education program coupled with an online platform will help diffuse the gendered social discourse and prevent potential perpetration ( Boyd et al 2013, p. 31 ). harness power for women to share realities and effects of cyber harassment and gives them the agency in free expression online ( that aligns with the cyber idealist vision ).

5. Conclusions

The key message is that gendered online harassment is an “old wine new bottles” issue. It origins from unequal gender relations where men are predominantly in positions of power and wealth who define acceptable and criminal behavior. This pattern of offline gendered culture transcends into cyberspace with the advent of the internet as its effects are further multiplied and amplified with the increased commodification of corporatized culture. The transgressive nature of gendered online harassment can therefore only be effectively solved with a holistic approach that is inclusives of both the offline and online worlds.A cultural criminological perspective that explains that online gendered harassments inflict a pain that represents a stimulating thrill for the male users as they try to establish their dominance online. The same pain these gendered comments cause in males, however, has serious psychological and sometimes physical effects that symbolizes suppression and creates feelings of humiliation. To combat a gendered online culture that originates from the offline structural relations against the highly corporatized setting, two policies are recommended based on findings in America, Canada and the UK that may also work for the Australian population. These policies include highly accessible education programs and online platforms to build a respectful culture by defining about what online gendered harassment is, the significance of its effects on cyber victims, and the involvement of cyber victims. By implementing these policies, the gendered culture offline can be diffused and becomes more inclusive and respectful of women’s opinions and expressions. In these ways, the online community may have the best shot at realizing the cyber idealist vision where everyone achieves equality and freedom in cyberspace.

6. Bibliography

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