Anti-rape poster campaign cut short after huge protest

This is such a difficult tightrope to walk.

I was a cop for 30 years in London and I was involved in several initiatives aimed at trying to prevent sexual assaults. Some campaigns were more successful than others but anything that even hinted at the idea that young women must play some part in their own personal safety or the safety of their friends was, just like this campaign, shouted down and we were accused of blaming the victims. It was hugely frustrating at times. We were never suggesting that.

There is a HUGE difference between a sensible attitude to personal safety and ‘asking for it’.

The sex attacker is ALWAYS the bad guy. No question. I lost count of the number of times that I had to reiterate that the victims were not to blame, were never to blame, and that it was the cowardly, predatory attacker who was the bad guy in EVERY case. But I would also have to point out that, while we can run education programmes to change men’s attitudes, increase penalties, make the judicial process less harrowing,and improve conviction rates etc., there is no town or city in the world that is 100% safe; there never has been such a place and I doubt there ever will be. There will never be enough cops to protect every person 24/7 (and numbers continue to dwindle) and, no matter how much education we throw at men, there will always be a few sickos who will offend. As Times columnist India Knight wrote not so long ago, ‘In an ideal world you could cartwheel home not wearing anything at all and know that you were safe, because anyone you might pass understood fully that they had no right whatsoever to touch a hair on your head. In the real world there are predatory men with demented, damaged ideas about women. […] There are men who believe what they see on telly, online and in their silly little magazines — that all women, everywhere, are gagging for it. The problem isn’t originated by women. But since all of us are its potential victims, splitting hairs about feminist theory and getting irate at the fact that the world isn’t how it’s supposed to be doesn’t get one far: it’s like going to bed with the door unlocked and the windows open because nobody has a right to help themselves to your property.’

Just a few months ago, I was in Nottingham giving a talk. On my walk back to my hotel, I passed by a young woman – late teens or early 20s – sat against a wall and so drunk I could barely get any response from her. I phoned for an ambulance rather than police because I reckoned she needed medical care more than she needed a night in police cells. Had it been a predatory man who’d found her instead of me, they could have done whatever they wanted to her. I’m thankful they didn’t. But there will always be a tiny minority of men who would have taken the ‘opportunity’. She wouldn’t have been to blame for her attack; she would be the victim. But that wouldn’t have stopped it from happening.

When founding the police, Sir Robert Peel said that ‘The police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence’. It’s incumbent upon all of us to look out for ourselves and others, especially those we care about. We can’t expect to abrogate all responsibility for our personal safety, surely?

I’m no longer a cop but I still write about crime and policing. I’d like to think that I’m as feminist as a male can be and those who know me would hopefully tell you the same. I’ve seen some brilliant work done by police and other agencies to reduce incidences of rape and sexual assault – long may that continue. Like any sane person, I want to see NO incidences of these horrible damaging crimes. I have a wife, daughters, a granddaughter and I want them to be safe and feel safe. But that has involved me giving them some solid advice about self-protection – including advice on looking out for their friends. It’s a sticking plaster solution that wouldn’t be needed if we lived in the kind of ideal society where all women are safe wherever they go and whatever they do. How wonderful that would be. But we don’t and, while I hope that it happens some day, it’s some way off. Society – in particular some men’s attitudes towards women – has to change radically. But, until it does, for the moment at least we have to consider less than ideal solutions.

I don’t believe for a minute that anyone is naive enough to believe that, because they have an absolute right not to be molested (which they have), it won’t ever happen. I also would find it hard to believe that anyone thinks that they have no part to play in personal safety. If people did think like that, they’d never lock their front doors or lock their cars and would walk down every dark alleyway confidently assured that they are completely safe.

Therefore, I’d love to hear from anyone who can suggest a way to encourage personal safety for women in a way that doesn’t suggest that they are, in any way, to blame if a man commits a sexual offence against them. If you can, you’ll be helping every police service in the UK to keep women safe and you’ll doing something positive to stop future attacks.