Information Gain in Intimate Partner Violence

16 pagesTechnology has undeniably become an integrated component of day to day life. From Google Maps replacing the GPS system that comes in many cars, to Facebook connecting friends and families from thousands of miles apart, there’s no end to the impact that technology has had on society as a whole, in essentially every realm. However, with further integration of technology into daily life also comes a growth in the number of nefarious ways that technology can be utilized. This paper seeks to better understand how individuals are gaining information in regards to technology mediated intimate partner violence, or IPV. Technology mediated IPV has become a new avenue of concern for individuals who often work directly with victims of Domestic Violence such as social workers (Woodlock, Mckenzie, Western, Harris, 2019). We sought out and scraped hand selected forums and then performed qualitative coding on the resulting data. Ultimately, a number of distinct patterns were revealed. Namely, a community that essentially validates, normalizes, and encourages use of technology in IPV was unveiled. In addition to this, targeted advertisements for tools that could be used for IPV taking advantage of potential abusive situations