Crimes against and by teenagers

[WH1SPERS]

My children’s high school is having classes from a local police officer about crime. You will be very surprised to know that the crime she is focusing on is hate crime towards trans people, specifically biological adult males.

And that pupils have come away from the clases thinking that saying things that trans women don’t like, is a hate crime.

I am writing to the school to politely suggest that

1. They give the correct information about this

1. They might focus on crimes in which their pupils are likely to be involved, either as victims or perpetrators.

Any advice on what to say or figures to quote ?

I’d like to mention sexual harassment and sexual assault of girls and also racial issues.

BTW It’s a very middle class, high achieving school with a significant number of Asian students.

And before anyone points out, yes of course crime towards anyone is wrong, including trans women. But it’s not the most likely crime to affect these pupils lives.

Was the session labelled as being about crime generally, or was it described as being about hate crimes and (LGB)T specifically?

Can any of the students give the definition of a hate crime? If not, what is the point of the lessons?

The Office of National Statistics has figures about crime rates, women (50% of the school) are at risk of street crime, sexual violence and DV. Asian people are at risk of racially motivated crime.
www.ons.gov.uk/search?q=hate+crime

They are missing an opportunity to actually do something about crime. In Africa there are various schemes to deal with the rate of sexual assault and rape by talking to school aged children, and they are having a positive effect;

''These consent classes have reduced rape by 51% in Nairobi''
''No Means No Worldwide have introduced a programme teaching girls self-defence and boys about positive masculinity – and it has significantly reduced rape statistics.''

www.parent24.com/Child_7-12/Development/these-consent-classes-have-reduced-rape-by-51-in-nairobi-20180322

assassinatedbeauty

It was about hate crime in general .

There was nothing in the session about crimes against LGB people, that is crime motived by hatred on grounds of sexual orientation. Even though this is the second highest number of hate crimes in our area.

There was nothing about hate crimes on racial grounds, which is the most commonly recorded crime.

There was nothing on disability, the third most common.

usershmoozer

Yes, the pupils came out of the lesson thinking that anyone who says something a transwoman doesn’t like is a crime. The examples given were very unkind and unpleasant things said privately to a trans woman by her friends and family. No examples given of things said to trans men.

It’s not nice to be unkind . But it’s not a crime.

What about religious hate crime, Wh1spers? AIR religious hate crime is about as common as disability hate crime, and much more than trans hate crime. Most common religious hate target is Jews, second is Muslim.

I'd feedback about the lack of coverage on the more common hate crimes and query the lesson focus on one much less common one.

You are right Mary -religiously motivated crime was the forth most common catagory last year.

And no of course that was not mentioned either.

I thought transpeople were estimated to be 1% of the population. I imagine in a school with a large Asian student body there will be a smaller proportion than that, so what about everyone else.

I think the message from the police, which is loud and clear, is that if it’s not an incident involving a transperson, don’t bother us.

A brick though the Mosque window, don’t bother.

Graffiti on the Synagog wall, don’t bother.

Sexually assaulted or raped, don’t bother.

Called a n* or a p** and had something thrown at you in the street, don’t bother.

Been called names or had your mobility aid stolen, don’t bother.

Been misgendered or called a man, call 101 and we’ll be round immediately.

In our area last year , there were roughly 6,000 sexual crimes Against children under 18 that were reported to the police. If we assume that 90% are not reported , that’s 60,000 sexual crimes against girls under 18 in one year.

There were 3,000 women who were victims of non sexual violent crime.

There were 36 hate crimes which were motived by the victims trans gender status ( victims of all ages ). Again, I assume that some were not reported.

Every one of these crimes is wrong. But 63,000 v 36 requires a change of emphasis.

If we assume that 90% are not reported , that’s 60,000 sexual crimes against girls under 18 in one year.

Are you sure this figure is just for girls?
Not arguing with you but your first line says it's Children.

This is an outrageous misuse of police time. The police have no business talking about transgender issues because they have a flawed understanding of transgenderism, based on false information.

In my experience of police schools liaison officers, some prefer to talk about 'soft' non-contentious non-crimes (with a view to being seen as compassionate and caring) rather than focus on the issues that affect the young people in the room.

The brave ones are those who ask the young people to write down something that they want to talk about, before the start of the session. The brave ones do some research on what is happening to young people in the area - as victims and perpetrators - and then try to engage in a discussion about REAL crimes that affect THEM.

You may have 30-40 minutes at best and there needs to be some value in the exchange of view - otherwise the police officer may as well go and do something else. In this case, it would have been a very good idea to go and do something valuable and relevant.

Bloody hell OP, I would be so furious about this! You're right to question this and pursue it with the school.

It's quite shocking that the police can find the time and that they are spouting inaccurate or at the very least, disproportionate information to kids. I fear a slippery, sparkling fin is behind this and it's nothing to do with Walt Disney.

Captain Kirk - you are right, thanks for spotting that. It’s mostly but not exclusively girls, i will check the report to see of there are figures.

Crime Surveys don't ask children and young teens to recount their experiences of crime. That's why you won't get a cut-and-dried large scale set of statistics of unreported crimes on children. Instead, you get two things

1. Smaller surveys asking particular questions (eg sexual assaults/upskirting/indecent exposurea)
2. Adults are asked to recount their expereinces of crime as children .... and the stats are mind-blowing.

There was a survey like (1) above about girls victims in schools - but I can't find it

For a broader survey like (2) you need the likes of this report from Victim Support:
www.victimsupport.org.uk/sites/default/files/u3709/Victim%20Support%20Policy%20Statement%20-%20Children%20and%20young%20people.pdf

I would love to ask the police officer who thought that a session on transphobic 'hate' was something worthwhile to preach to young people.

How does s/he justify the session?

How many transphobic hate crimes and incidents have been reported to the police in the vicinity of this school, or in the neighbourhood?

Police Officer is female

Don’t know how many transphobic hate crimes near the school, I would guess zero since 36 in the entire country.

Thanks for the links Pam. Is this the report you were thinking of ?

www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/women-and-equalities-committee/inquiries/parliament-2015/inquiry1/

Despite the lack of centralised data on incidents of sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools, we are able to gain a deeper understanding of the extent of this problem through the extensive quantitative and qualitative data submitted to this inquiry. A number of large scale surveys find girls and young women consistently reporting high levels of sexual harassment and sexual violence in school:

59% of girls and young women aged 13–21 said in 2014 that they had faced some form of sexual harassment at school or college in the past year
Almost a third (29%) of 16–18-year-old girls say they have experienced unwanted sexual touching at school
41% of UK girls aged 14 to 17 who reported an intimate relationship experienced some form of sexual violence from their partner
22% of young girls aged 7–12 have experienced jokes of a sexual nature from boys
Nearly three-quarters (71%) of all 16–18-year-olds (boys and girls) say they hear sexual name-calling with terms such as “slut” or “slag” used towards girls at schools on a daily basis or a few times a week
28% of 16–18-year-olds say they have seen sexual pictures on mobile phones at school a few times a month or more

Pam. Is this the report you were thinking of ?

Well done! That's the one.

Would it be possible to suggest that a barrister/someone from the CPS come to the school and tell them what actually happens in the courts? Because this police woman seems to have got things back to front.

I spoke to the head of year today. She seemed open to my input and explained there is a number of these sessions planned, so she will talk to her line manager and then to the PC about the content.

I also followed up with an email giving facts and figures about sexual assault and sexual harassment in schools and why it might be better to focus on this type of crime, rather than one that doesn’t actually affect the pupils.

I tried very hard to be positive and constructive and not rant , which is what I was tempted to do!

Many thanks to you all for your suggestions.

If its about hate crime though sex is not a protected characteristic

I mean, if course it isn't.

Did the police officer touch on wrongthink at all or was it actually saying mean things like eg in biology teacher says human beings are mammals characteristics include female giving birth to life young and feeding milk...?

My child didn’t pick up anything about wrong think.

The example given was apparently a personal one for the Pc concerned, so I won’t give details. It was about a man whose family and friends were critical of him when he decided to identify as trans.

The comments were not abusive, were made in private and did not incite violence or hatred. So hard to see how they were a hate crime.

Glad about wrongthink

But

Private non criminal remarks in a family setting aren't illegal? So it is about wrongthink

Yes I guess you are right.

I made this post strongly to teh head of year, asked her to ensure that this misinformation was corrected. Because of course the school will want to ensure freedom of speech and freedom of religion for all children.

This is infuriating. School children's experience of crime includes: grooming online and in school, County Lines, knife crime, drug abuse, sexual exploitation, economic exploitation and assault. These are the real and present dangers to their well-being and mental health that I hear about from the teens I tutor. I suggest the adults themselves get offline and talk to actual kids about their experience of crime, rather than jumping on the cause du jour and wasting resources on this. Even the suburbs are not safe from the (not exhaustive) list of crimes above.