'Sussex Police is taking an innovative approach' to their new Rape awareness campaign

[DuelingFanjo]

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Innovative my arse.
Their Twitter response has been "we are not blaming victins! We can reduce number of victims in many ways. Friends can play a key role"

I would like to know which activities do they consider to be vulnerable and risky? Maybe just being a woman? Going out? Drinking?

I saw that this morning and couldn't believe it. The bit that really pissed me off was the thing about not letting your friend go home with a stranger.

First, that appears to ignore the evidence that most assaults are by someone known to the victim and second, it's incredibly slut shaming. If women have one night stands - or 'let' their mates have them - I feel like this advert implies that Sussex police will think they 'asked for it'. It's deeply outdated and not even evidence based.

Posters like this have been done to death all over the country, you'd think they would have looked at what had been done elsewhere and what the reaction had been?

It would be much cheaper to stick a printed out bit of A4 in the men's toilets, reminding men to not stick their dick/hands/whatever where it isn't 100% enthusiastically wanted.

I saw one of these posters in my home town at the weekend and was

Many sexual assaults could be prevented - yes they could, if we taught men and boys that they shouldn't do it instead of trying to get women to avoid 'risky situations'.

I tweeted asking what makes someone vulnerable and at risk and got the following reply:

"There are many thing that could lead to someone being vulnerable. Incl. being alone or isolated, under influence of drugs or alcohol, suffering from mental health problems, being unwell or injured if someone looks upset or distressed, their age - e.g. if a young person is out late at night. There's no definitive list"

Their campaign is particularly about being vulnerable to sexual assault.

Someone made this.

Might have to share that!

Sussex Police have a link on their website to the following site

on which it says: Anyone experiencing rape or any other kind sexual abuse is not blame - it was not your fault no matter where you were, what you were doing, what you were wearing, what you were saying, if you were drunk or under the influence of drugs, it was not your fault and you did not deserve this.

Yet they clearly blame the victim in their recent campaign

meh

Isnt it more about alerting people to keep an eye on their friends? If your friend is completly drunk, why wouldnt you try and make sure she got home ok? Its not about victim blaming, its about taking care of people.

YES of course men need to be able to not rape women (and no one is denying that), but we can all take steps to be that little bit safer, not to get paralytic. Like looking before you cross the road, where is your friend, is she alone and in danger? Is that person over there upset, alone, in danger??

Yes, you should take care of your friends - but not only to avoid being sexually assaulted as a woman. Men and women, just to make sure they're not so drunk they will end up with alcohol poisoning; or to make sure that they don't step into the road because they didn't notice the car coming; or to point out there's steps on that side and a lamppost on that side when they're walking; or that they don't try to walk home in a just thin trousers and a light t-shirt in the middle of winter, because they're likely to get hypothermia.

This poster, whatever their other tweets and so on may say, does blame the victim and the victim's friends. And there's certainly not anything innovative about it, just tiresomely repetitive.

Why aren't campaigns like this targeted at men "to be that little bit safer, not to get paralytic"?

In fact why are campaigns like this not targeted at men to not get drunk so that they don't rape women? Because there is a correlation between alcohol and rape and that is with the rapist.

" but we can all take steps to be that little bit safer, not to get paralytic."

this isn't aimed at all. it's aimed at stopping women from getting Assaulted and Raped. Other people stopping women from getting Assaulted and raped.

Where are the men on the poster?

The Sussex Police website links to several places where victims of sexual assault can get help and advice. The two I read both reiterate that a woman is never to blame for a rape or assault. Surely Sussex Police can see that this type of Campaign just adds to a culture where women are blamed or blame themselves?

This is an area that genuinely confuses me. Nobody ever blames the victims of burglary, yet I've seen police advice on alarms (even fake ones), locks etc.

Yet even if those steps aren't taken nobody blames the victim of the crime, neither are the police themselves leapt on for victim blaming. Yet I can't see any harm in promoting information that allows individuals to lessen any risk to themselves.

Now with both burglary and rape, individuals mitigating any risk to themselves, won't stop an individual burglar/rapist commiting a crime against someone, but then again of these police campaigns seem to suggest this would be the case either.

So I suppose my confusion stems from, why can we have this sort of campaign for one crime and not the other?

Please note I am not questioning people condemning such campaigns as I wholeheartedly respect where they are coming from and admire anyone taking action.

Dueling.. thanks for the poster, it's now doing the round of Twitter

Ah I got it from Twitter to start with.

There is also a petition... given that Sussex Police seem to be really proud of their victim blaming poster....

Here

Aaaaaaaaaand already a bunch of men telling women that, like property crime, rape can be prevented by women somehow locking themselves up. After all... you'd lock a car/house/iPad/other thing that's not in any way like a vagina away.

People who say stuff like this view women as property. Ugh.

Oh dear that really is awful.

It would be a perfectly legitimate campaign if it featured young men and young women in a generally look out for your mates when drunk way.

The direct message can be delivered to @sussex_police, fwiw.

The poster is item 1 on a rapist's charter and provides a first line of a defence. It also provides a significant filip to some Sussex police officers who may not feel particularly obliged to refer a reported case to their CPS for prosecution.

To be fair to Sussex police (well just a little bit) they won't have made that up themselves. A consultancy /advertising agency will almost certainly have been involved.

Well, quite. Commissioned by them, and paid for by the people of Sussex largely. Yet with the years and years of experience in documenting, interviewing, case prep., victim liaison, court experiences, advice, and absorbing the pratice and legal requirements of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 regarding rape....they still produce this as a public information item..without saying.."erm.."??
Provides little scope 'to be fair' if I may say Still.

I don't feel like being to fair to Sussex Police, given that they have been trotting out the same statement for the last couple of days, despite having several rape crisis, women's refuge, feminist groups and other sadly knowledgeable people point out why the poster is bloody shocking.

No it doesn't let them off the hook but there were others involved. I'd love to know who designed the poster.

Yes, but when you commission you also 'quality-assure' - there seems no wit or imagination to do that here by Sussex police.