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Tackling street harassment
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80% of women have experienced sexual harassment in public spaces. Learning the 5D’s can help everyone safeguard against this type of abuse.
Keeping ourselves and each other safe is a vital part of our work at Choice Support. We recognise how important it is to empower people to spot the signs of danger or abuse, and the ways we can look out for each other in our communities. Today we are sharing advice from the Suzy Lamplugh Trust and the Stand Up Against Street Harassment training programme.
The Ann Craft Trust hosted their annual conference last year for National ‘Safeguarding Week’ with their guest speaker from the Suzy Lamplugh Trust. Suzy Lamplugh went missing at the age of 25 while working as an estate agent. Her parents established the Suzy Lamplugh Trust in December 1986, to offer personal safety training and advice to help people be and feel safe.
They have partnered with L’Oreal Paris to develop the Stand Up Against Street Harassment international training programme. Research shows 80% of women have experienced sexual harassment in public spaces. However, unwanted harassment in public can happen to anyone. This campaign aims to provide people with confidence to act when they see it, as 76% of people have already witnessed it.
We may have different reasons why we haven’t acted when we observed harassment. This can include fear of becoming the target, reading the situation wrongly or because no-one else is doing anything (otherwise known as the bystander effect).
It takes courage to stand up and act, and the simple online training mentioned above with the Suzy Lamplugh Trust can help you do that, in what they refer to as the 5 Ds.
When you see it happen:
- Distract - pretend to be a friend, cause a distraction, be creative.
- Delegate - find someone in a position of authority and tell them what is happening, eg bartender, bus driver or a security guard. Ask them to intervene.
- Document - watch and witness, write down or film the harassment (eg pretend to be taking a video call or a selfie), provide footage to the victim and never post online or use it without their permission.
- Direct - speak up and call the harasser out, then turn your attention to the person being harassed. If the harasser responds, ignore them, don’t escalate. Only use 'direct' as a last resort to prevent violence. Your safety and that of the person being harassed, comes first.
- Delay - comfort the harassed person after the incident and acknowledge that the behaviour was wrong.
They also provide training on how you can respond if you are the person being harassed:
You can find more information, and complete a 10-minute online training programme, by clicking this link: Stand Up - Against Street Harassment (standup-international.com)
We must not accept that sexual harassment, or any form of public harassment towards ourselves, or others is acceptable.
Together we can make a difference.