College Students' Perceptions of Intimate Partner Cyber Harassment

Little is known about cyber harassment in general, and in order to understand more about online harassment among intimate partners, it is important to examine people's perceptions of this new form of aggression. Using Johnson's typology of relationship violence as a guiding framework, the role of technology in partner violence was explored using data from five focus group interviews. Six themes emerged from the analyses, four of which revealed that this partner violence typology accounted for the aggressive use of technology in dating relationships. The remaining themes centered on the ways in which online harassment differs from offline violence. These findings have important theoretical implications and may inform future prevention and intervention efforts.