A woman receives a death threat via text message, then finds a tracking app installed on her phone without her knowledge. This project investigates the scale and nature of digitalised violence against women across Europe—a phenomenon that includes hacking, stalking, harassment, non-consensual distribution of intimate images, and fake pornography. Despite its growing prevalence, very little research has been done on how common these forms of abuse are, who is most at risk, how victims report it, and what support services exist. The research will combine large-scale surveys with in-depth interviews to map both the extent of the problem and the lived experience of victims. If successful, the findings could shape how police, tech companies, and support organisations respond to online abuse—potentially influencing reporting systems, platform safety policies, and the design of digital services that women can use without fear. Without this evidence, the problem remains invisible, and women’s ability to participate safely in online life continues to erode.
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Advances in technology have transformed and expanded the ways in which violence against women (VAW) can be perpetrated. Like so many other aspects of life, VAW has become digitalised, with online violence and abuse now ubiquitous in the lives of women and growing at an alarming rate. Digitalised VAW comes in many forms including hacking, threats, surveillance/tracking, harassment and stalking, cyber flashing, child and/or fake pornography, and malicious distribution of intimate photos and messages, also know as image based sexual violence. To date, very little research has been carried out on this phenomenon, leaving significant gaps in the literature around the prevalence of this type of violence in Europe, victim characteristics, reporting practices, the impact on victims wellbeing, recovery and the availability of support services. This project thus proposes an extensive investigation into this issue which, as it continues to go unaddressed, poses a significant risk to women’s ability to safely engage in the online world. To do this, the project will take a mixed methods approach, applying both quantitative survey-based methods and in-depth qualitative interviewing to gain rich and insightful data on the issue. Quantitative data will be used to further understand the nature and scale of DVAW, while qualitative data will focus on the impact, meaning making and support available to victims.
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