Primed for Exploitation: How Early Violence, Institutional Betrayal, and Structural Vulnerability Shape Pathways into Pornography

Women filmed for pornography report extensive abuse and serious health consequences, yet pathways into pornography remain under-examined. Using an embedded qualitative mixed-methods approach, we explored factors shaping these pathways in Sweden. Twenty-five adults (23 women) who had been filmed for pornography completed questionnaires and participated in teller-focused interviews. Informed by a socio-ecological framework, our reflexive thematic analysis generated the global theme Primed for exploitation, comprising three themes: Imprints of early violence, No one has my back: Relational and institutional betrayals, and Compounding structural vulnerabilities. Our findings reveal how childhood