TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2023//
TI  - Short-term and long-term impacts of financial sextortion on victim's mental well-being
JO  - Journal of interpersonal violence
A1  - O'Malley, Roberta Liggett
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - Sextortion occurs when an individual threatens to distribute a victim's intimate images, videos, or information unless they comply with the perpetrator's demands. In financially motivated sextortion, these demands include payment of a ransom. Despite global increases in financially motivated sextortion victimization, there is limited research on the psychological impacts of this type of victimization. Leveraging 332 threads (3,276 posts) from a popular sextortion support forum, the purpose of this research was to use inductive qualitative methods to understand how financially motivated sextortion impacts victims' mental well-being, their online engagement, and how they process and deal with these impacts. The results illustrate four main concepts: short-term impacts, long-term impacts, coping strategies, and getting better over time. Short-term impacts included worry, stress, anxiety, self-blame, and somatic symptoms of stress. Long-term impacts included enduring episodes of anxiety. Some sources of coping reported by forum users were to confide in a trusted friend, stay offline, or seek professional mental health care. Despite these impacts, many forum members expressed a sense that their anxiety and distress "get better overtime," a concept that was assisted through active coping strategies.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0886-2605
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/08862605231156416
ID  - ref1
ER  -