Sex is different from Money: Conceptualizing Sextortion as Corruption

Research on the dynamics of corruption has increasingly investigated the relevance of a gender perspective for understanding the driving forces, manifestations and consequences of corrupt transactions. Yet, until recently, it has rarely considered sexual services as a currency in the corrupt transaction. When border officials ask women migrants to pay with their bodies if they want to cross a border, it is as corrupt as asking for any other bribe in exchange. Teachers asking girls to perform sexual services in exchange for grades abuse their entrusted authority every bit as much as if they would ask for money. When managers hand out positions, jobs or contracts to women who have sex with them, it is as much a neglect of meritocratic principles as a nepotistic appointment would be. This paper focuses on the type of corruption where the transactional currency is some form of sexual services. This form of corruption, where entrusted authority is abused in order to obtain sex in exchange for a service or benefit, is called sextortion (Eldén et al. 2020). The paper theorizes and conceptualizes sextortion as a form of corruption. It asks the question of how the fact that the currency is sex changes the dynamics of the transaction and our understanding of corruption. It concludes that while sextortion should be recognized as a form of corruption, it also has elements of gender-based violence. In the vast majority of recorded cases of sextortion the perpetrator is a man. Gender norms around the relationship between masculinity, femininity and sexual conduct mean that the perpetrator can often rely on the coerced sexual transactional aspect to imply consent. From the point of view of the victim, shame, stigma and fear make it unlikely that sextortion will be reported.