“I Don’t Feel Safe at All”: Examining Shattered Assumptions Among Male Victims of Sextortion

29/05/2026

AI Summary

Financial sextortion of men is rising; offenders demand money by threatening public release of private sexual images.
Victimisation shatters core assumptions of invulnerability, world predictability and positive self-regard, producing intense anxiety, shame, hopelessness, and fear of future victimisation.
Men employ active and cognitive coping to rebuild assumptions, including minimising impact, reducing online activity, and adopting a victim identity; implications for research and practice.

AI Summary

Current research and law enforcement data highlight the rapid growth of male victims of sextortion crimes, especially financial sextortion offenses, a variant in which the primary demand is financial payment in exchange for keeping material private.

Using a theory-guided thematic analysis of open-ended survey responses from 169 male victims, this study examines how male victims experience, interpret, and manage their victimization using Shattered Assumptions Theory (SAT) as a framework.

Results find that victims experience symptoms in a way that can be understood with SAT, such as a "shattering" of the core assumptions around their invulnerability, the predictability of the world, and their own positive self-regard, leading to intense anxiety, fear, shame, hopelessness, and concern for future victimization.

Basic summary

J Interpers Violence. 2026 May 29:8862605261446971. doi: 10.1177/08862605261446971. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Online sexual extortion, or “sextortion,” describes a crime in which a victim is threatened with the public distribution of private, sexually explicit images unless they comply with the offender’s demands. Current research and law enforcement data highlight the rapid growth of male victims of sextortion crimes, especially financial sextortion offenses, a variant in which the primary demand is financial payment in exchange for keeping material private. However, there is limited research on the psychological impacts of financial sextortion victimization on men. Using a theory-guided thematic analysis of open-ended survey responses from 169 male victims, this study examines how male victims experience, interpret, and manage their victimization using Shattered Assumptions Theory (SAT) as a framework. Results find that victims experience symptoms in a way that can be understood with SAT, such as a “shattering” of the core assumptions around their invulnerability, the predictability of the world, and their own positive self-regard, leading to intense anxiety, fear, shame, hopelessness, and concern for future victimization. In addition, participants illustrate evidence of active and cognitive coping strategies that resemble SAT’s notion of “rebuilding assumptions” to reduce emotional distress, such as minimizing the impact, reducing online activity, and identifying as a victim. Considerations for future research on male victims of sextortion and implications for practice are discussed.

PMID:42212905 | DOI:10.1177/08862605261446971

Document this CPD