{"id":38848,"date":"2024-06-13T09:59:07","date_gmt":"2024-06-13T13:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.janedoe.org\/?p=38848"},"modified":"2024-07-31T10:00:18","modified_gmt":"2024-07-31T14:00:18","slug":"massachusetts-lawmakers-unanimously-vote-to-criminalize-revenge-porn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.janedoe.org\/massachusetts-lawmakers-unanimously-vote-to-criminalize-revenge-porn\/","title":{"rendered":"Massachusetts lawmakers unanimously vote to criminalize revenge porn"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dominique Farrell, GBH<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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June 13, 2024<\/div>\n
Updated \u00a0June 14, 2024<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Massachusetts Senate voted 38-0 to criminalize what\u2019s known as revenge porn, the sharing of intimate or sexually-explicit images without the subject\u2019s consent.<\/p>\n

The vote follows the unanimous approval of the legislation in the House yesterday. It now heads to the desk of Gov. Maura Healey, who has already voiced her support.<\/p>\n

The Commonwealth joins 48 other states in making the non-consensual sharing of intimate images a crime and the seventh state to enact protections against coercive control, a pattern of abusive behavior used to dominate an intimate partner. Tactics can include isolation, financial abuse, verbal abuse, stalking and humiliation.<\/p>\n

State Senator John Keenan (D), who sponsored the bill, credited abuse survivors with moving the legislation forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo those who find themselves in vulnerable situations, hopefully this bill serves to protect them from becoming the next victims of revenge porn and coercive control,\u201d said Sen. Keenan.<\/p>\n

Advocates have been pushing lawmakers to act on these issues for years.<\/p>\n

Hema Sarang-Sieminski, deputy director of the nonprofit advocacy group Jane Doe Inc., said the bill\u2019s passage is a monumental moment for survivors.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdding this language to our protection order statute really allows survivors to seek protections from the power and control underlying domestic abuse,\u201d said Sarang-Sieminski.<\/p>\n

In September, Carmen Aliber testified at a State House hearing in support of the bill, recounting how a former partner took control of her life by linking to her devices and controlling her online accounts. She described coercive control as \u201cthe most insidious and crippling form of manipulation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite no physical scars, his technological, financial, emotional, psychological, legal, and other forms of abuse that I am not ready to speak about nearly destroyed me,\u201d she testified. \u201cTechnology was my abuser\u2019s weapon of choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aliber told GBH News that police said she would need to show signs of physical or sexual abuse in court to obtain a restraining order.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked law enforcement. I asked my attorney, how come protections aren\u2019t in place? And they said, because the laws are not written that way,\u201d said Aliber. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what led me to say, I will be working with legislators to change these laws because abusers don\u2019t change, so laws must change to protect victims.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aliber founded the Together Rising Above Coercion Coalition or TRACC to protect others like her.<\/p>\n

She says this legislation will make it easier for victims to obtain a restraining order against their abuser. If that order is violated, the offender can be arrested.<\/p>\n

Experts like Dr. Lisa Fontes, a lecturer at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said coercive control is the underlying element of revenge porn.<\/p>\n

\u201cRevenge porn \u2013 controlling and harming you through posting images \u2013 is an extension of coercive control,\u201d said Fontes.<\/p>\n

Intimate images include AI-generated images and deep fakes. Those found guilty of revenge porn could face up to two and a half years in jail and a fine of not more than $10,000. Offenders who are minors would be directed to an educational program.<\/p>\n

Republican State Senator Bruce Tarr said this legislation could not come soon enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhereas technology continues to evolve and become more proliferate, the threat of the damage that can be done with regard to these kinds of actions grows by the day, and that damage can be significant,\u201d he said. \u201cIt can be incredibly disruptive and damaging to the lives of the victims.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarang-Sieminski agrees.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen an image is shared without a survivor\u2019s concerns, it really raises the risk of further sexual assault tremendously,\u201d said Sarang-Sieminski. \u201cOur protection order statutes did not cover that kind of harm. Our criminal laws did not cover that kind of harm.\u201d<\/p>\n

For many survivors, this legislation will help educate the public and courts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was silent because I was ashamed and I felt like my situation would stigmatize me professionally,\u201d said Aliber. \u201cI came to realize my abuser had gotten away with this behavior for years because … victims are silenced by shame.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Dominique Farrell, GBH June 13, 2024 Updated \u00a0June 14, 2024 The Massachusetts Senate voted 38-0 to criminalize what\u2019s known as revenge porn, the sharing of intimate or sexually-explicit images without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-coverage"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.janedoe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.janedoe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.janedoe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.janedoe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.janedoe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38848"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.janedoe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38849,"href":"https:\/\/www.janedoe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38848\/revisions\/38849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.janedoe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.janedoe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.janedoe.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}