Institute of Criminology Public Seminars: 'Revenge Porn: Charting a territory through privacy violation, image abuse, trans-jurisdictional distribution and cyber harassment'

Speaker: Sophie Arkette

[Revenge porn] is an abuse of power, states Baroness Brinton, designed to cause distress, and with the nature of social media today, the perpetrator can hand it on and on to others, including professional sites whose participants often then choose to troll the original victim, their family and their work colleagues. (Hansard, HL, Vol. 756. Col. 520, 20 Oct 2014) Revenge porn so-called is defined as non-consensual disclosure of private sexual images, usually, but not exclusively, via online publication. The offence of disclosing content has a mens rea requirement: that images made available – through publication or peer-to-peer networks, the list is non-exhaustive- arise from the intention to cause an individual distress. The act of non-consensual disclosure is predominantly associated with image sharing in intimate partnerships but it can equally apply to images taken by one of the parties without the other’s knowledge. This seminar will question the nature and scope of s.33 of the Criminal Justice & Courts Act 2015 paying particular attention to the concepts of privacy and the sexual image, as well as raising a number of scenarios in which the law seems remiss. Can third party compliance with image distribution be subsumed under the offence? Are images of an individual when doctored to appear sexually compromised covered under the offence? And if not, how might current legislation be amended?

Sophie Arkette is an advocate for equal protections of people with facial disfigurement. Under the auspices of the Changing Faces charity, she is involved in UX advisory workshops. Concurrently she is undertaking a sculpture commission for the Rolls Building Art and Educational Trust, which will examine the effects of morality exclusions within the European patent regime. During 2015- 16 she was Leverhulme Artist-in-Residence at the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law, Cambridge Law Faculty. Conference presentations include: Human Enhancement & the Law: regulating for the future, St. Anne’s College, Univ. of Oxford, 2016; Images and Imagination in Theorizing about Law, The Foundation of Law, Justice & Society, University of Oxford, 2015, and the Legal Medium, Yale Law School, 2015.

This seminar starts at 5.30pm. A drinks reception in the basement foyer will follow this seminar for attendees

The IoC Public Seminar Series is open to all interested in attending, with no ticket required. If you wish to be added to the seminar mailing list, please contact: Joanne Garner, on: jf225@cam.ac.uk