Technology-facilitated abuse: Interviews with victims and survivors and perpetrators

This report presents findings from Stage II of a national project examining the extent, nature and responses to TFA within the Australian community. The project focuses on the gendered nature of TFA, consistent with the current Australian policy focus of the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children 2010–2022 (Council of Australian Governments, 2011). By “gendered nature”, we refer to the ways in which the impacts on victims and survivors, the relationships in which TFA occurs, and the extent of differing types of abuse can vary according to the gender of the perpetrator and/or victim and survivor. Stage I of the project reported on a survey of 338 sector workers, including domestic and family violence, sexual assault, health, legal services and specialist diversity services, who work directly with clients experiencing or perpetrating TFA. The Stage I report described the nature and impacts of TFA, the adequacy of current responses to TFA, and the need for further development in both responses to and prevention of TFA (Flynn, Powell & Hindes, 2021). Stage II of the project, the focus of this report, seeks to represent the lived experiences of victims and survivors of TFA, and identify the nature of TFA perpetration, by reporting on 30 semi-structured qualitative interviews with victims and survivors and perpetrators of TFA. Stage III reports on national prevalence rates for the victimisation and perpetration of key behavioural subtypes of TFA (Powell, Flynn & Hindes, 2022).