Rape: is there an app for that? An empirical analysis of the features of anti-rape apps

ABSTRACT

This study of mobile phone apps designed to prevent sexual violence (n = 215) is a quantitative analysis of all their features (n = 807). We analyze the intended users (victims, bystanders, and perpetrators) and rape prevention strategies of each feature, finding that anti-rape app design generally reinforces and reflects pervasive rape myths, by both targeting potential victims and reinforcing stranger-danger. To demonstrate that these limitations are primarily cultural rather than technological, we conclude by imagining apps with similar technical features that resist rather than reinforce rape myths. This study offers an empirical investigation of the relationship between technical design and social norms, and a unique methodology for uncovering the ideologies that underlie design.

KEYWORDS:

• Mobile phone apps
• sexual violence
• rape prevention
• rape myths
• software design
• computer programming

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Rena Bivens is an Assistant Professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at Carleton University. Her research interests include software design, normativity, gender, and violence [email: [email protected]].

Amy Adele Hasinoff is an Assistant Professor in the Communication Department at the University of Colorado Denver. Her book, Sexting Panic (2015), is about the well intentioned but problematic responses to sexting in mass media, law, and education [email: [email protected]].

ORCID

Rena Bivens http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2893-0547

Amy Adele Hasinoff http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7530-8278

Notes

1 Most English-language apps targeted to users outside of North America were designed for the Indian market and were found on Google Play. High-profile cases of sexual violence (e.g. 2012 Delhi gang rape) were commonly cited in app descriptions, along with specific concerns about safety in taxis and police brutality.

2 Using app store search engines contributes unknown errors.

3 The common male perpetrator/female victim narrative of sexual violence dominated app descriptions. Recognition of violence in same-sex relationships was very rare and there was no mention of victims or perpetrators outside of the male/female binary.

4 Links to websites and developer names for all cited material from app descriptions can be found in the supplemental data for this article.

5 Good2Go received negative reviews when first launched in September 2014 and has been pulled from app stores.

6 For example, Circle of 6 mentions known perpetrators, and describes the use case as a bad date: ‘You’re on a date that starts to get uncomfortable. You need a polite way to excuse yourself.’ OnWatch, in contrast, only refers to situations involving stranger perpetrators, for example: ‘Going out for a run alone? Set the timer feature.’

7 Callisto is a web-based service that provides closed systems for institutions such as colleges or military bases, and is thus not part of our set of apps for the general public.