Southwark Council has launched a new campaign to tackle growing harassment against women and girls in the area from men and boys
The campaign, which is called Through Her Eyes, aims to stop small acts that turn into violence against women.
Southwark Council said: “Sexual harassment sits on a sliding scale of harm. If not called out, it can escalate into violence against women and girls”.
The focus within the campaign flyers, as well as in the short video, flips the genders of stereotypical situations to make men think about their behavior as though it were happening to them.
“Women and girls should be able to walk our streets without fear or intimidation. It is not for them to adapt their behaviour to avoid unwanted attention from men or to feel safe. That’s why our campaign ‘Through Her Eyes’ speaks directly to men and boys.”
It also provides lists of what constitutes harassment including sexual comments, jokes and unwanted physical contact and ways to stop the harassment, including how men in particular can help.
Southwark Council’s website includes links for those concerned about their own behavior as well as victim support services.
Members of the public have applauded the campaign with one expressing on social media how they ‘cannot tolerate that kind of behavior in the community’ with it being an ‘incredibly important campaign’.
A Southwark resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said she often “feels unsafe walking around the area”’ and how she “‘hopes the campaign will spread awareness to young boys and men who think their behavior is okay to think twice”.
“There will be times where I am walking around the area and I hear beeps from cars, especially vans, or even them shouting and yelling crude statements to me… it just makes me feel really unsafe in the area I live”.
Sexual harassment crimes on the rise
The campaign comes at a time where there has been an increase in sexual harassment crimes being reported in the area as a staggering 61% of women have been harassed in public in Southwark.
Earlier this year a fifteen-year-old was raped in Peckham.
It was reported the young girl was walking In Peckham Rye when a man approached her and took her to a green shrubbery area. The assault then happened near Elm Grove, in Peckham.
A man in his 30s was then arrested and placed in police custody on the 31st of January 31, on suspicion of rape.
The man, Abioina Dele Lawal, 32, with no fixed address, was then charged with the rape on the 2nd of in February.
The detective superintendent Clair Kelland, who led the investigation, commented that this crime on January 30th would have ‘a considerable impact on the local community, in particular young women and girls’.
In July this year a Camberwell man was charged following a series of sexual assaults in the area.
Chai Thomas-Manners was charged with eight counts of sexual assault by touching which occurred on the July 5 and then a further three counts of sexual assault on April 27.
Police received several reports alleging that a man was sexually assaulting and harassing women in the Camberwell and Ruskin Park areas, which led to Thomas-Mannner’s arrest on July 5 and prosecution at Croydon Magistrates’ Court.
