Incident Reporting & Response – 2015 Annual Report
By Susan Wright
NCSF’s Incident Reporting & Response provides informational resources about kink and non-monogamy and referrals to kink aware professionals. 198 requests for help were received in 2015, compared to 184 requests received in 2014. Professionals who requested information to better serve kinky people included: academics, social services, vanilla nonprofit organizations & events, authors, merchant services, and insurance brokers.
Criminal
72 people requested informational resources and referrals to kink aware professionals involved criminal issues:
39 requests from victims of assault, sexual assault, sexual harassment and blackmail
14 requests from people who have been accused of consent violation (5 were requests for Kink Aware Professional who could serve as an expert witness in a trial)
5 involved requests from pro-dommes
4 people were called as witnesses in a criminal trial and were thereby outed
3 involved photographs of BDSM scenes or marks
7 involved other criminal issues such as parole violations, bigamy, sex laws and obscenity law.
Group Issues
50 groups requested informational resources and referrals to kink aware professionals involving organizational matters. This more than doubled the requests in 2014, with the majority of those asking for information on dealing with consent violations:
24 groups and events requested information on dealing with consent violations
16 groups and events requests info and referrals regarding zoning and setting up a group
7 groups and events requested assistance with media incidents
2 groups requested help with liability issues
1 group requested help when they were sued by a member over age discrimination
Child Custody
30 people requested informational resources and referrals to kink aware professionals regarding child custody or divorce. 26 involved child custody issues, down from 37 in 2014:
16 involved BDSM, with 4 involving photos taken from FetLife
8 involved polyamory (1 involved both polyamory and BDSM)
2 involved pro-dominatrices
4 were divorce cases, with 2 involving photos taken from FetLife
This continues the trend in a sharp decline in the number of child custody cases involving BDSM since the DSM-5 proposed revisions came out in 2012:
2015 – 19 people
2014 – 37 people
2012 – 87 people
2011 – 115 people
2010 – 125 people
2009 – 132 people
Additional Requests
There were 46 other requests for informational resources and/or referrals to kink aware professionals:
23 professionals requested information about kink or polyamory to better serve their clients
10 people requested assistance with discrimination because they are kinky or polyamorous
6 people requested assistance with media exposure
4 pro-dommes requested resources on setting up their business legally
3 involved threats of outing without blackmail
For updates and details on IRR requests, look for our quarterly IRR reports in the NCSF Newsletter. Sign up by emailing [email protected]