Street Harassment: Should cat – calling be criminalised?
SMQ Legal student Intern considers the topic of street harassment and whether it should become a crime.
An overwhelming 94% of girls said they think street harassment should be illegal and 72% said knowing it was a criminal offence would make them more likely to report it to the police. This is especially important when considering how 35% of UK girls wearing school uniform have been sexually harassed in public – showing the significant impact public sexual harassment has on minors. 80% of parents said they start worrying about their daughter having to experience public sexual harassment from as young as 11 years old. 33% of girls admitted they were too embarrassed to tell anyone about what happened to them – which is why it is important to make it a criminal offence and encourage girls and women to report.
The #CrimeNotCompliment campaign is calling for the UK to follow in the footsteps of other countries who have successfully implemented legislation to tackle the issue of street harassment. The initiative has been cofounded by Plan International who found that 51% of girls in the UK have experienced public sexual harassment since June 2020. More than half is a shocking figure in any circumstance, but this is even more concerning as it shows not even a pandemic and lockdown can stop such acts from occurring. This is why campaigners are calling for new legislation to make any form of public sexual harassment a criminal offence.
The UK Government took an important step in 2019 in recognising street harassment as a form of gender-based violence – but it is still not a crime. Nearly 45,000 people have signed the petition to criminalise street harassment, because they do not believe catcalling is harmless but actually an aggressive act of male power that needs to be stopped. Campaigners are calling for the UK to recognise that every girl should have the right to move freely on the streets and in public, without the fear of being intimated and harassed.
By Anisha Ali
Reading University Student Intern