Story box:
A minor named Malak was being blackmailed by a man twice her age. Her strict father
and paternal relatives made it hard to intervene. Although the Family Protection
Department promised confidentiality, they requested a guardian, forcing her mother,
who left home without her father’s permission, to accompany her. The father was also
summoned against Malak’s wishes, but since he was at work, the uncle was called,
escalating tensions. The mother faced social stigma for going to a police station, and
both she and Malak faced backlash. Malak was kept under state protection due to her
extended family’s reaction. Later, her father defended her after discovering her suicide
attempt, but the family likely responded with punishment through rejection or
contempt, showing offline consequences long after initial criticism.
Barriers to Addressing and Reporting TFGBV
Our survey found that 77.4% of women did not report the online violence they
experienced. Critically, among the 22.6% who did report it, half were left
completely unsure if any action was ever taken. Only 9.7% confirmed action
was taken, while 40.3% said nothing was done. Through follow-up interviews, we
investigated this lack of reporting and uncertainty, identifying two key barrier
categories: legislative/structural and sociocultural.
Legislative and Structural Barriers
In 2008, the Public Security Directorate in Jordan, following the Royal will,
established the Cybercrime Department under the Criminal Investigation
Department28. According to the Cybercrime unit, online crime is:
a. Any act criminalized by law that constitutes an assault on material and/or
moral conditions resulting directly or indirectly from the intervention of
information technology.
b. Any act or omission using a technological means that is punishable by law.
The cybercrime unit has been an essential actor in combating online violence.
According to their 2022 statistical report, cybercrimes increased sixfold since
2015. The unit has demonstrated their critical effectiveness by actively combating
a wide spectrum of digital threats by addressing thousands of cases, including
3,769 instances of defamation and slander, 3,466 online threats, 2,118 cyber fraud
attempts, and 1,285 cyber-extortion cases. Furthermore, the unit targeted severe
crimes that threatened community peace, handling approximately 133 cases of
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PSD WEBSITE – the Unit was developed and renamed “Combating Cybercrime unit” in 2015, but it is still publicly
recognized as “the cybercrime unit”
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