Sexual harassment on the street in the United Kingdom (UK) is soon to attract a jail term of up to two years.
This comes after the British government on Friday (9 December) said it will support a bill that would make street harassment – like catcalling, following someone and blocking their path – a punishable crime.
The private member’s bill, tabled by the former business secretary Greg Clark, has received support from UK home secretary Suella Braverman.
“Every woman should feel safe to walk our streets. We are putting the needs of victims at the heart of our decision, which will mean the criminals who commit these acts face the consequences they deserve,” she said, as per The Guardian.
What does the bill say and why was it needed? What has the reaction been about the bill criminalising street harassment in England? We explain.
Bill on street harassment
The Protection From Sex-Based Harassment in Public Bill was introduced in the UK Parliament by Conservative lawmaker Clark who said the aim was “to reinforce a change in the culture that establishes that it is completely unacceptable to abuse women in the streets”, reported BBC.
“Public sexual harassment can affect men and boys, but we should be clear that it disproportionately affects women and girls” he said during a debate in the House of Commons.
The bill intends to criminalise obstructing someone’s path, obscene or aggressive comments towards someone, deliberately walking closely behind someone as they walk home at night, and driving a vehicle slowly near a person in public spaces, as per The Guardian.
The legislation also proposes to increase the maximum sentences for such crimes from six months to two years.
Sexual harassment is illegal in the UK, but the government has argued that bringing new legislation against street harassment will encourage more people to report the offence to the police.
Last year, another bill sought to classify misogynistic violence as a hate crime, but it did not receive the support of the British government and was eventually struck down.
Murders that shocked UK
Sarah Everard was kidnapped and killed by a police officer while walking home in south London last year.
Her death had raised serious concerns about women’s safety with the police coming under heightened scrutiny.
As per a YouGov survey this year, two-thirds of women in UK did not feel safe walking alone at night. AFP (Representational Image)
In September of that year, a primary school teacher Sabina Nessa was murdered in south London by a stranger. The man identified as Koci Selamaj was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 36 years in April this year.
The UK home office, which is in charge of policing, has recently launched a campaign called ‘Enough’ to motivate people to call out harassment.
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Statistics of street harassment in the UK
A survey conducted by YouGov for BBC – which was published in March – found that two-thirds of women did not feel safe walking alone at night.
Out of the 3,361 adults surveyed in February this year, 62 per cent said they have experienced catcalling or wolf-whistling, while only eight per cent men experienced this.
Unwelcome touching or groping was faced by 43 per cent of women and 15 per cent of men, YouGov survey added.
According to The Guardian report, research published by children’s charity Plan International and the campaign group Our Streets Now in 2020 revealed that catcalling, following, groping, flashing or upskirting was experienced by 19 per cent of young women and girls in the age group of 14-21, while 75 per cent had been a victim of some form of sexual harassment in their lifetime.
Last year, a survey for UN Women UK said 86 per cent of women in the age group of 18-24 had faced sexual harassment in public.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), a UK government agency, says females under 34 are most likely to be sexually harassed, however, they are the least likely to report them, reported BBC.
Reactions to the street harassment bill
As per The New York Times (NYT), opposition lawmakers lauded the government’s move to support the bill on street harassment and also called attention to “broader recognition of women’s lived experiences”.
Labour’s shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, was quoted as saying by BBC, “Any action to tackle the epidemic of violence against women and girls is welcome, but the government must now go further and faster.”
While appreciating the move to address men’s abusive behaviour toward women, Andrea Simon — the director of the End Violence Against Women coalition — also raised concerns about the implementation of the new legislation citing the “damaged state” of the justice system.
“We have concerns that a justice system that is already so badly broken won’t be able to implement any new law,” she said, as per The Guardian.
Hailing the bill, Rose Caldwell, the chief executive of Plan International UK, said it was “a huge step towards a society where no girl feels unsafe walking home”.
“This bill sends a clear signal to perpetrators that this behaviour is not OK, and to women and girls that they will be protected and listened to,” she was quoted as saying by The Guardian.
Stella Creasy, a Labour lawmaker who campaigned for misogyny to become a hate crime, said, “This is parliament finally recognising, as the police do, that misogyny drives crimes against women and girls”.
She also said that the new law would initiate a broader change as the police would now collect data on street harassment, The Guardian reported.
With inputs from agencies
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