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Street sexual harassment in England and Wales will lead to up to two years in prison, under plans backed by the Home Secretary.
After years of lobbying by campaigners, the UK government has backed a private member’s bill introduced by former business secretary Greg Clark, which would criminalize sexual harassment in public spaces.
The backbencher’s bill aims to criminalize behavior such as following someone as they walk home at night, making obscene or offensive comments towards them, obstructing their path or driving slowly near them in public places. It passed its second reading unanimously in the Commons on Friday and will now move to committee stage.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman said: “Every woman should feel safe walking our streets. We put the needs of victims at the heart of our decision, which will mean that the perpetrators of these acts face the consequences they deserve.”
Research published in 2020 by children’s charity Plan International and campaign group Our Streets Now found that a fifth (19%) of girls and women aged 14 to 21 had experienced catcalling, following, folding, flashing or upskirting, while 75 % had experienced some form of sexual harassment in their lifetime. A UN Women UK survey last year found that 86% of women aged 18-24 had been sexually harassed in public.
Rose Caldwell, chief executive of Plan International UK, said the bill was “a huge step towards a society where no girl feels unsafe walking home”, adding that the safety of thousands of girls depended on it.
“This bill sends a clear signal to offenders that this behavior is not OK, and to women and girls that they will be protected and heard,” she said.
Stella Creasy, whose campaign to make misogyny a hate crime was rejected by the Law Commission, said the new law finally made sex-based street harassment – which she called “misogyny in all but name” – a crime.
“This is finally Parliament recognising, as the police do, that violence drives crimes against women and girls,” she said, adding that the law will bring about sweeping changes as police forces will now collect data on street harassment.
Creasy, the Labor MP for Walthamstow, said he would introduce amendments to the bill to ensure it covered “imminent harm”, so offenders could not claim they had no intention of committing the offence.
“We have to confront a culture where women are still held to account for their behavior when they are offended, and to question the idea that men casually harass women.”
Andrea Simon, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said efforts to address men’s abusive behavior towards women were welcome, but would be hampered by the broken state of the justice system.
“We are concerned that a justice system that is already badly broken will not be able to enforce any new laws,” she said, calling for more to be done to prevent sexual harassment in the first place.
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