Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence: An Integrated Theoretical Framework of Digital Affordances, Abuse Mechanisms, and Victim Impact

Abstract

Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV) is a multidimensional form of gender-based violence in which digital technologies enable, facilitate, amplify, or mediate harmful practices. Existing research has examined technological affordances, specific abuse mechanisms, manifestations of TFGBV, and consequences for victim-survivors, but these dimensions are often studied separately. This paper proposes an integrated theoretical framework that connects four analytical layers: Digital Affordances, Abuse Mechanisms, TFGBV Manifestations, and Victim Impact. The framework is developed through a structured narrative synthesis of recent TFGBV literature, complemented by a foundational study of technological mediation. It conceptualises TFGBV as a context-dependent pathway in which technological possibilities may be operationalised through abusive mechanisms, expressed through different manifestations, and associated with psychological, social, behavioural, and health-related impacts. The framework does not assume that technology itself causes violence or that the proposed relationships are deterministic. Instead, contextual factors—including socio-cultural norms, gender inequality, institutional responses, and platform governance—are treated as conditions that may shape the relationships among the four layers. The principal contribution is therefore integrative: the framework provides a TFGBV-specific conceptual architecture for linking what technology makes possible, how those possibilities may be operationalised for abuse, how abuse is manifested, and what consequences may follow. The framework and propositions provide a basis for future empirical validation across technologies, populations, and cultural contexts.