Sexual forms of corruption and sextortion: How to expand research in a sensitive area

Abstract

There is increasing attention among advocacy organizations about the urgent problem of sextortion and other ways in which sexual forms of corruption hurts vulnerable people. Yet, scholarly understandings of this challenge are, conceptually and empirically, underdeveloped. In this Working Paper, we make three contributions: First, we elaborate on the concept and discuss how to define sextortion, i.e., what it is and what it is not. Towards that aim, we trace the use and evolution of the concept and present empirical illus-trations of where, in which sectors, the phenomenon thus far has been detected. Second, we analyze the first cross-national survey that includes questionnaire items gauging sextortion. This survey helps to disen-tangle where, geographically, the problem is prevalent and what individual factors that seem to increase the risk of experience sextortion. Third, we discuss a future research agenda on this theme and provide sugges-tions on what research questions this vein of study should be posing. Systematic empirical studies are scant, and thus there is little knowledge about the scope of the phenomenon. Therefore, we propose, as a next step, more of theoretically informed survey research. We conclude by discussing potential recommendations for policy that would come out from such renewed research.