Online Shaming Article Event RSVP
Join us for a reflection on Online Shaming and the Power of Informal Justice, an article published in Vol. 47 of JLG. This article examines online platforms as a mechanism for processing sexual assault as an alternative to the criminal legal system. Professor Hadar Dancig-Rosenberg, author of the original piece and Professors Kathryn Abrams and Deborah Tuerkheimer, authors of the published responses will continue this conversation with Professor Diane Rosenfeld. 

The abstract of the original article is as follows: 

In recent years, survivors of sexual assault began disclosing identifying details about their alleged assailants while sharing their stories online. The practice has been termed “online shaming.” Some survivors have engaged in online shaming in addition to reporting their cases to the police, while others have employed it as an alternative to taking legal action. This Article reveals, for the first time, how sexual assault survivors who participate in online discourse on sexual assault perceive the practice of shaming their alleged assailants online. 

This Article relies on in-depth interviews with survivors who have shared their stories on Facebook to uncover their justifications for and objections to online shaming. According to survivors, online shaming serves to achieve not only personal and feminist objectives, such as undermining gender and social hierarchies and giving voice to survivors, but also classic criminal justice-oriented goals, such as deterrence and incapacitation. Indeed, they hold the belief that online shaming can outperform the criminal legal system in achieving these goals. At the same time, survivors stressed that the online channel has its perils if victims use it to attain informal justice.

This Article sheds light on the dynamics and tensions between two “competing” platforms of justice—the mainstream, formal criminal legal system and the online, informal one—and suggests essential lessons for the criminal legal system. Survivors need both formal and informal channels to be open and accessible to make an informed choice between them according to their preferences, needs, and circumstances. 

Click here to read the full article. Click here to read Professor Kathryn Abrams' response, here to read Professor Deborah Tuerkheimer's response, and here to read Professor Dancig-Rosenberg's reply. 

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