On April 27 2016 we reported on the impact of a new 'revenge porn' law which made it an offence to share private sexual photographs or films without the subject's consent.
We used the Freedom of Information Act to ask police forces across the UK for data on arrests under the new law: 31 forces in England and Wales responded. The data covered offences between April 2015, when a new law against revenge porn came into effect, and December 2015.
We found:
- There were 1,160 reported incidents of revenge pornography from April 2015 to December 2015
- Three victims were 11 years old with some 30% of offences involving young people under 19
- The average age of a revenge porn victim was 25
- Around 11% of reported offences resulted in the alleged perpetrator being charged, 7% in a caution and 5% in a community resolution
- Some 61% of reported offences resulted in no action being taken against the alleged perpetrator. Among the main reasons cited by police include a lack of evidence or the victim withdrawing support
- Facebook was used by perpetrators in 68% of cases where social media was mentioned in reports. Then came Instagram (12%) followed by Snapchat (5%)
- We have published the data on this GitHub repo here. Note that it is not always possible to compare along rows: the final column indicates where this is not appropriate.
The story began in January when Birmingham City University journalism student Sandro Sorrentino used a Freedom of Information request to look at the figures in the West Midlands.
Sandro then worked with the BBC to compile a national picture, resulting in April's story.
On April 30 the Express & Star reported a West Midlands angle on the data, describing the data as being "taken from an FOI request made to West Midlands police".
On Sunday May 8 The Guardian followed up on the BBC story with a piece on the mother of one victim revenge porn criticising police "for letting the perpetrator off with a caution despite evidence he targeted five women over several months."