Anti-rape devices and misconceptions
CRIME prevention initiatives targeting sexual violence are not new. As technology advances and costs decrease, we are seeing an abundance of digital and technological strategies emerge.
Last month, an invisible antigroping stamp sold out within an hour of its launch in Japan.
The stamp can be used by victims to mark someone who gropes them on public transport. This mark can only be seen when a black light (that comes with the device) is cast over it.
In 2014, undergraduate students at North Carolina University began promoting the company Undercover Colours’ nail polish. The polish supposedly changes colour when dipped into a drink laced with daterape drugs such as Rohypnol.
A team now involved with the company has since launched SipChip, a “coin-sized drug test” on a key fob that can be slipped into a pocket or fixed on to a phone cover.
These devices are targeted at possible victims (typically women), asking them to assume responsibility for own their safety and management of risk. But as critics say, they can reinforce misconceptions about sexual violence, not challenge them.
Victim-blaming of those who have experienced sexual assault is, unfortunately, common.
All too often, victims/ survivors are asked what they might have done to facilitate or provoke an attack. By expecting women to control their bodies and environments with the help of anti-rape devices, the question “what were you wearing?” could be reframed as “what anti-rape devices did you have?”
The constant vigilance expected of women cannot be overlooked.
Anti-rape apps and devices are designed to intervene in risky situations. They can be valuable in preventing particular incidents.
But such measures may only deter perpetrators from harming one person, not necessarily from harming others, or attacking the target at another time.
Assaults on public transport and in public spaces are an issue. But focusing on the “unknown” danger from strangers can take away focus from the higher level of sexual violence enacted by acquaintances, friends, dates, and intimate partners – often in private places.
In the most recent National Community Attitudes toward Violence against Women Survey in Australia, about one in seven young Australians reported a man would be justified in using force if a woman initiated sex but subsequently changed her mind about continuing. Almost one in four young men also believed women found it flattering to be persistently pursued, even if they were not interested.
Such “problematic attitudes to violence against women” were said to be common among young people with mainly male friends.
When it comes to technological responses to sexual violence, perpetrators and bystanders are rarely the focus. This is an oversight that warrants attention.
Technology can offer support for women in the aftermath of an incident. Victims/survivors use digital channels to call out sexual hostilities, aggression or unfavourable experiences on dating apps. Examples include public Instagram accounts such as tindernightmares.
Bye Felipe also features posts “calling out dudes who turn hostile when rejected or ignored”.
Advocates have created apps that provide victim/survivors with ways to report violence and seek assistance. For instance, Sunny helps survivors with disabilities share their stories and locate information about their rights and support.
Virtual reality is another innovative channel we can use to promote and practise bystander intervention in a simulated environment. Users can see and experience how bystanders might intervene to prevent sexual violence.
Ideally, this would be trialled alongside discussions about ideologies and behaviours that foster perpetration, and how consent can be understood and respected.
In many ways, technology can help prevent sexual violence and offer support to victim/survivors. But we must develop digital initiatives that seek to promote real-world, social shifts. Technologies should seek to engage with and prevent perpetration, promote bystander intervention and challenge the myths, attitudes and underlying structures that facilitate sexual violence. Harris is a senior lecturer, School of Justice, Queensland University of Technology.