Sextortion: PCAR Fights to Outlaw Practice in PA

A landlord threatening to evict tenants unless they have sex with him. A judge demanding sex in exchange for favorable custody decisions. An invisible stranger coercing and even threatening young teens and children into sharing sexual images and performing sexual acts via social media. These are just some of the many faces of sextortion. 

Denny Civic Solutions works with a diverse group of clients working to impact a wide variety of issues. That collaborative relationship with our clients allows us to learn about a wide range of subject matter. In this case, it was our friends at the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape (PCAR) who first introduced us to the issue of sextortion.

Sextortion occurs when a person uses guilt, power, or knowledge of certain secrets to force another person into providing sexually explicit photos, having sex, or performing sexual favors. Victims of sextortion suffer the same devastating and often long-lasting harm as other sexual assault victims. Unfortunately, because many criminal statutes do not specifically address acts of sextortion, many crimes of this nature often go unpunished.

Our friends at PCAR are currently hard at work to ensure that sextortion is made illegal in Pennsylvania so that survivors can get the justice they deserve. We encourage you to learn more about the work PCAR is doing on sextortion and a number of other pressing issues at their website – because if there’s one thing we’ve learned from working with them, educating ourselves is the first step towards ending sexual violence once and for all.