This lecture will present some findings from research on online romance fraud that was conducted with support from the cybercrime units of several police forces. Online romance fraud is an often misunderstood crime that involves online grooming and domestic abuse. This type of crime is rapidly proliferating in the UK and internationally. Upon discovery, victims usually experience shame and a lack of wider support. Drawing on in-depth interviews with fifteen victims and five stakeholders, the lecture explores victims’ experiences and considers the type of support that might be helpful in recovery. This approach centres victims’ voices and explores tools that help to empower them after experiencing this type of exploitation. It is argued that wider cultural myths about this crime contribute to the isolation of victims and hinder the process of healing. The lecture also considers what the phenomenon of online romance fraud reveals about the intersection of gender inequality and digital intimacies in the contemporary era.

Bio-Note:

Róisín Ryan-Flood is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Centre for Intimate and Sexual Citizenship (CISC) at the University of Essex. Her research interests include gender, sexuality, kinship, digital intimacies and feminist epistemology. She is the author of Lesbian Motherhood: Gender, Sexuality and Citizenship (2009). Her co-edited books include Secrecy and Silence in the Research Process (2010), Transnationalising Reproduction: Third Party Conception in a Globalised World (2018), Difficult Conversations: A Feminist Dialogue (2023), Consent: Gender, Power and Subjectivity (2023) and Queering Desire: Lesbians, Gender and Subjectivity (2024). Her current research projects explore: donor conception families and tracing donors via DNA testing or social media; and online dating and online romance fraud. She is co-editor of the journal Sexualities: Studies in Culture and Society.