Essex police are being accused of victim blaming with their new rape prevention warnings with an online petition being set up in order to convince them to withdraw them.
The above image is being distributed by the police as part of a new safety campaign aimed at university students attending the annual Fresher’s Week in the region, which revolves around introducing new students to their new place of further education and involves multiple events at local clubs, pubs and bars orchestrated by the local learning establishments.
3 of the 4 images being distributed by Essex Police focus upon women, with them putting the focus on the actions of the implied victim in each scenario.
Louise Perrington, the creator of the petition, described the problems with Essex Police’s campaign, writing: “Conflating advice to prevent acquisitive crime (like locking up your laptop) is entirely different to telling women what they can and can not do in public spaces. We don’t blame the victim of a mugging for being in public spaces, yet we blame rape victims for being in public, wearing short skirts, drinking beer, and walking home from work.”
While there are those who believe that encouraging women to be vigilant is no bad thing, in actuality this is exactly the kind of campaign that perpetuates the unfortunate belief that women can somehow be to blame for being raped. By putting the spotlight on rape victims rather than those actually guilty – y’know, the rapists – Essex Police are failing to address the cause of the problem (again, the rapists) and are instead contributing to the sense of guilt and shame that is often experienced by rape victims, which has been a large factor in why only 15% of those who experience sexual violence in the UK choose to report it to the police.
And when your police are sending out messages such as these, there should be no doubt in regards to why so many choose to remain silent:
Unfortunately, the conviction rate for rape in the UK is also decreasing after reaching a 63% high in 2012/13 – in 2013/14, it was revealed that the conviction rate fell to 60.3%.
Those who argue against criticisms of the low numbers of these convictions tend to believe that the amount of individuals who have “cried rape”, i.e. lied about the sexual violence they have suffered, is likely high, though this has been dispelled as a myth. In fact, in 2012/13, only 35 of 15,670 rapes reported to police were found to have been false allegations. In the same time period, it is believed that around 82,000 rapes went unreported.
The Change.org petition is currently nearing the 500 signatures its organisers are requesting. Essex Police have yet to issue a statement regarding the matter, though this story will be updated if they choose to do so.
