Laughably inappropriate campaign by North Yorks police

[Cottonflowers]

Tweet asks whether potiential victims of sexual abuse will choose to be at their 'abuser's place' or have a 'happy face' This is so unbelievably victim-blamey! I really hope the mainstream media picks up on it and they have a rethink!

mobile.twitter.com/NYorksPolice/status/1066972334819549184

Why don’t they target the abusers
Isn’t that the job the police are paid for

This is the one area where I'm out of step with my fellow feminists. The advert is ill advised to be sure, but if any kind of awareness amongst potential victims is to be decried as 'victim blaming' then we will see more people fall prey to this abuse.

My understanding is that the victims were groomed. The abusers used tactics to persuade them that this was a normal boyfriend/girlfriend thing and that it wasn't rape when of course it was.

Surely teaching young people that grooming is a thing and perhaps how to spot the signs of it is a positive thing? Even if the victims themselves are unable to spot the abuse pattern then their friends could?

Education is so often the key. These posters are tone deaf but in general, I don't think it's vile or victim blaming.

That's sort of what I was trying to say, Morris. Putting information out there on abusers tactics is a good thing - forewarned is forearmed. Peoples choices inevitably do matter - so, we teach kids about dangers and how to avoid them. From crossing the road, to what to do if they get lost, to avoiding drugs. Done properly (which this spectacularly wasn't) an information campaign helping children recognising and avoiding abusers would surely be a good thing?

This can't be real, can it?
Not like you make a fucking choice, as a victim, is it?!
Nice message there for young women. And whilst you're at it girls, chose your underwear wisely
I'm honestly starting to think that the combined police forces of Yorkshire are on a mission to self-destruct. They're the masters of armchair policing.
Either that or they'll be held up as shining examples in our new dystopian society. Alongside the Incels, TRAs and MRAs.

Is there evidence that making children aware of abusers' tactics makes them less vulnerable?
If it does - great - make a GOOD campaign. But if it doesn't - do something else. Like targetting the abusive men.

Of course raising awareness helps. Even just spending time on mn has taught me so much about abuse patterns. I genuinely think if I was to find myself in a new relationship at this point, I'd be so much better equipped to spot early signs and have the confidence to walk away.

That doesn't mean that should I miss the signs and end up a victim of abuse, that it would be my own fault. But ideally, I'd want to have the ability to take action, and avoid the situation altogether.

You're right about education Errol & Morris. It's so important. There's been a serious gap for such a long time in information campaigns. The stuff my kids learn at school is really patchy and obviously limited by time & curriculum constraints.
But this is such a grim format to take. It feels as though there's a huge Kitchener style pointy finger missing from those adverts.

I think you have to bear in mind though that the majority of actual feet on the ground officers probably think the same about this campaign.

It’ll be a stupid idea dreamt up by someone with a marketing degree and little policing experience, ok’d by someone high up the food chain who has been management for far far longer than they were a cop, if they ever were a PC (there is a scheme now for helicoptering in professionals to high ranking officer level bypassing beat cop)

I make referrals to our local safeguarding police unit and they will probably also be appalled.

I agree with pp above. Many cse victims think they are making their own choices and it isn’t abuse, until it very definitely is.

I wonder if the point they were attempting to make is the “happy place” is the abusers place, at least to start. Whatever it didn’t work, spectacularly so!

A non victim blaming approach would be to give the signs of a grooming attempt and tell victims the police are there to support them.

(In reality its more likely that if you try to get help in the early stages of grooming, people will say you are being paranoid, he hasn't actually done anything wrong and why do you want to ruin his reputation?)

That police force are beyond parody. The collective IQ of the whole lot of them would barely crawl into double figures.

Newname12
I agree re rank and file police - think they'd find this off colour.

And you're spot on, the illusion of choice is an important point - that's the point of cse, it firstly exploits the trust in order to gain access to the physical.
It might feel autonomous at first, when it clearly isn't and it's not something that can be easily spotted until it's in process.
The police campaign seems to be saying there is a choice between 2 clearly marked neon-flashing signed paths, one safe, one not and it's up to the potential victim to chose.
So wrong.

The police campaign seems to be saying there is a choice between 2 clearly marked neon-flashing signed paths, one safe, one not and it's up to the potential victim to chose.
So wrong.

To give the benefit of the doubt i wonder if some super clever marketing bod is trying to make the point that you can’t tell which path is which. Maybe there’s was supposed to be a secondary campaign or something.

Because i can’t believe anyone is stupid enough to think that victims of cse get up in the morning and think ooh, Should i stay in my nice safe house and take fun selfies, or shall i pop over to that inappropriate blokes house for some sexual abuse.

In the first stages of cse going to see, or staying into chat with, a potential abuser if fun and confidence boosting, and makes you happy. That’s grooming.

What morons. That wasn't education on how to spot the unsafe choice and how to choose the safe choice.

It was just telling girls to choose well

Birthday presents or angry fists? I would think the abuser would have a birthday present waiting anyway. And what if the angry fists are waiting at home?

So simplistic and stupid.

i wonder if some super clever marketing bod is trying to make the point that you can’t tell which path is which

but what's the point of the add? Choose wisely because you can't tell which choice is the right one? And we're not going to tell you which one is...

Why don’t they target the abusers

Lets not pull at that thread...

A better campaign might be one aimed at friends and family of groomed children. “Is your friend coming to school with lots of new gifts? Does she have a new boyfriend that concerns you? Do you think she is being encouraged to drink and stay off school? Could someone be pressuring her for sex? If you think one of your friends is being groomed here are the numbers you can call to speak to someone. You can also speak to X person in your school or Y person in local police station.”

A better campaign might be one aimed at friends and family of groomed children. “Is your friend coming to school with lots of new gifts? Does she have a new boyfriend that concerns you? Do you think she is being encouraged to drink and stay off school? Could someone be pressuring her for sex? If you think one of your friends is being groomed here are the numbers you can call to speak to someone. You can also speak to X person in your school or Y person in local police station.”

I don't think there should be a campaign at all, not until they can absolutely garuntee they will take reports seriously, have proper and sufficient support ready to go, and thwybare bloodybserious abkut arrests and helping the victims.

Other wise they are probably in a worse situation for reporting it than for staying quiet.

And right now there are certain forces not deserving of the trust being put in them when there are responses these campaigns

If they changed one word it would be ok. Change Or to To. Happy place to sexual abuse. Showing how it leads in. I get what they're saying but it's very badly done.

The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing

The Left Hand provided funds to appoint 7 Sexual Violence advocates to work with survivors of domestic and sexual abuse in North Yorkshire. It has an innovative project working with teenage boys, including an Early Intervention for boys who have already assaulted partners.

The Right Hand produces a shockingly inappropriate and bizarre series of posters with stupidly ignorant messages.

It is unacceptable that the North Yorkshire Police Chiefs are only now realising the folly of the campaign because of Twitter.

If we, a cynical, vocal, educated group of women, don't understand what the hell this means (assuming it was actually supposed to be a guide to spotting groomers), how in the name of the wee man will a fourteen year old? Even a kid from a loving, safe, comfortable home wouldn't get it, never mind a child who is desperate to escape. There's absolutely no listening being done by the police, is there?

Atrocious advertising because I'm genuinely confused what the message is.

Is it:

1. Choose wisely between birthday gifts or angry fists (FFS)
2. You may think it's birthday gifts but it may lead to angry fists

Either way it's about as clear as mud, doesn't actually help young people understand about grooming and doesn't offer support.

There was a fantastic campaign about 10 years ago aimed at young people that showed coercive behaviour and said something like "It doesn't have to be physical to be abuse" and "If you saw yourself, would you see an abuser?" That's the kind of information campaign that actually works rather than this shambles.

They've issued a statement which seems to me to be defending the campaign saying the feedback they got was that the campaign was "unclear" but some people loved it!

northyorkshire.police.uk/news/a-comment-about-our-child-sexual-exploitation-campaign/

"A comment about our Child Sexual Exploitation campaign

Posted on 27 November 2018 at 12:30pm in News stories

A spokeswoman said:

“For this campaign, we were drawing on the experience of officers on the ground, that vulnerable young people who are at a cross-roads in their lives sometimes don’t feel that they have any power. No person should feel they have no way out of victimization.

“This deliberately hard-hitting campaign was to get across the message that exploitation is not a life that anyone has to live, and that the police are there to support people who are at risk, and who need help. No victim of child sexual exploitation is to blame, and that is not the message we set out to give in our campaign.

“We have received some positive responses to the campaign, but we have also received feedback from people who didn’t feel our message was clear.

“It’s important to us that we listen to the public – and especially to the young people we’re trying to reach – so we’ve withdrawn the campaign on social media so we can do some more testing with our target audience”."

and that the police are there to support people who are at risk

They're not though, are they? I mean, the whole country is aware of their track record in terms of failing to protect or help young people who're at risk.

Who is their "target audience"?

Men?
Abusers?
Paedophiles?

It's certainly not children. Not with this campaign and not females at all, ever.

YY Giles! No point at all asking children to report abuse when they have no intention of actually addressing it.