Sextortion Incidents In a University Setting: Implications for Social Workers and Criminal Justice Professionals

Background: Sextortion refers to threats to disseminate explicit images to extort money, coerce favors, or to cause humiliation. A scoping review of the literature suggests sextortion victimization rates among adults range from 4% to 18.7%. Victims frequently experience profound consequences, both psychologically (i.e., anxiety, PTSD, suicide) and materially (i.e., financial loss, forced relocation). Despite its severe impacts, sextortion remains highly underreported to law enforcement, and legal recourse for these crimes is limited. The current study aims to assess the prevalence, offender characteristics, victimization patterns, and consequences of sextortion within a university setting to inform prevention and response efforts.

Methods: The current study deployed a convergent parallel mixed methods design for secondary analysis of law enforcement case files involving sextortion (n = 46) from a police department at a large public university in the Southern U.S. The sample was identified through a review of approximately 6,321 case files from a five-year period (2020-2025). De-identified information relating to case characteristics (e.g., victim demographics, type of offender, circumstance leading to sextortion, effects on victims) were extracted from qualifying cases and entered into an Excel spreadsheet for analysis. Descriptive statistics and qualitative content analyses were produced to address study aims.

Results: Victims in these case files were more commonly male (n = 33) and ranged in age from 18-40, with most victims age 26 and under (n = 40). Victims were more commonly from minoritized racial groups, specifically Asian (n = 18) and Black (n = 14) identities, and most cases involved a scenario where the victim and perpetrator met online (n = 32). Digital platforms used to perpetrate sextortion were most often social media sites (e.g., Snapchat, Instagram) or dating sites (e.g., Grindr, Bumble). Content used to extort was typically obtained through photos being consensually sent by the victim and subsequently disseminated or threatened to disseminate without their consent (n = 19) or through unlawful recording of the victim by perpetrator via screen recording (n = 14). Male victims were more likely to be extorted by strangers they met through the internet, whereas female victims typically experienced sextortion as part of a pattern of coercion and control in current or past intimate relationships. For many victims, the impacts of sextortion were profound. Victims who suffered pecuniary loss ranged from $50 to $1,500 and others experienced significant life changes including withdrawal from school, being fired from a job, and a mental health crisis resulting in hospitalization.

Conclusion and Implications: This study captures demographic and circumstantial trends as well as significant impacts of sextortion incidents in a university setting, highlighting gendered differences in how these crimes may present to law enforcement. As legal recourse for sextortion is often limited, social workers must work alongside criminal justice professionals to ensure that victims are connected to resources that can support their broader well-being. Due to legal limitations, it is also crucial to prevent these types of victimization before they occur. The data in this study will support universities in designing targeting prevention programming for students.