'Nearly a fifth of girls groped every month' in West Midlands

Plan International UK addressed the region’s Strategic Policing and Crime Board yesterday calling for such incidents to be recognised as gender-based violence in force policies, along with lower level behaviour such as catcalling and wolf-whistling.

The children’s charity has suggested an app where victims could report and receive support without being a ‘burden’ on police time.

Eighteen-year-old Isabelle, from Coventry, who is on the charity’s youth advisory panel, said: “I think it’s really important that this happens.

“Living in Coventry for my whole life I have experienced so many instances of street harassment, the things you would consider small things like catcalling, wolf-whistling, leading up to the more serious incidents.

“Me and my friends often talk about what happens to us like cars driving on the side of the pavement saying things, so many incidents of touching inappropriately, comments being shouted at us.

“The place I have experienced it the most is Coventry city centre. That shows why I think this is such a serious matter and why I think it should be taken really seriously.”

‘I Say It’s Not Ok’

Plan International launched its ‘I Say It’s Not Ok’ campaign in October.

The charity has since polled more than 1,000 girls and women in the UK aged between 14 and 21 about their ‘everyday experiences’.

It revealed 42 per cent of respondents had been sexually harassed but did not tell anyone about the experience.

The charity says girls are left feeling ‘anxious, degraded and embarrased’ and that inappropriate behaviour is being ‘normalised’ as ‘part of growing up’.

In the West Midlands the survey found:

• 72 per cent of girls and young women have experienced unwanted sexual attention, physical contact or indecent exposure

• 42 per cent of girls and young women have been followed

• 40 per cent are experiencing catcalling, wolf-whistling and/or sexual comments once a month or more

• 17 per cent are being touched, groped or grabbed every month

The campaign outlines a number of ‘actions for change’ such as public messaging campaigns from authorities, bystanders calling out inappropriate behaviour and boys to change their behaviour by challenging their peers and responding positively to girls disclosing their experiences.

New strategy

Further measures include ‘comprehensive’ sex education and for authorities to ‘explicitly’ recognise street harassment as gender-based violence committing to tackling it in budgets and strategies.

In response Alethea Fuller, acting chief executive for the West Midlands Police and Crime and Commissioner said: “We are in the process of refreshing our victim strategy and have included in that stalking and harassment as a priority.

“Another thing that the commissioner has done is funding a stalking and harassment project that covers the whole of the West Midlands.

“That project responds to all forms of stalking and harassment and works with people from the age of 13 upwards, all victims male and female.

“So we do have a support service that will offer a tailored service to an individual, a response to the individual’s needs.

“All of those services are available on our website as well so a victim that wanted to self refer is able to do that.”

David Thompson, Chief Constable for West Midlands Police added: “The force has quite a considerable amount of staff dedicated to women and girl violence issues and so we would be keen to support any work that was in that space.”