Violence

In Public Places ...On our streets

• Introduction       Videos     Pictures    Statistics

Introduction

Women, and some men, feel afraid on the streets of towns and cities. They do not feel they own, or that they can freely participate in, public spaces. People who don’t feel like they belong there, or who don’t even feel like they really exist, might behave in ways (such as spacing out, extreme risk taking, or severe skittishness) that make them more vulnerable. Predators have excellent radar. Some of us may have had the tools we all need to be safe in public compromised by our experiences of violence. If our fear of the street makes us leave our bodies, we cannot notice our surroundings calmly. Effective vigilance looks like relaxed alertness. Such awareness is the product of groundedness and a reasonable level of self esteem. So is the wherewithal to think on one’s feet when intimidated or threatened.

Violence in this context has a disproportionate impact on women. Violence that women experience in the streets or community can take the form of rape, physical assault or criminal harassment. Criminal harassment, or stalking, can be defined as:

Repeated conduct that is carried out over a period of time that causes victims to reasonably fear for their safety…these contacts are repeated on numerous occasions and in general serve no legitimate purpose but to cause the recipient to fear for their own safety or for the safety of someone known to them. (Canadian Centre for Justice Studies, 2005:68)

Gays and lesbians, queer, transgender and transsexual people, Muslim people, people of colour, immigrants, women, homeless and underhoused people, people with intellectual and physical disabilities, and many others are all subject to random hate-based attacks and the constant fear of these attacks. Many workers (or former workers) in the sex trades have (or used to have) the streets as their workplace, and it can be a particularly violent one. Threats on the street may look and feel different depending on past experiences, and as with everything, may affect learning. For example, someone attending a class in a building at the corner on which she used to work, or still works, might have a disturbing or problematic experience getting there.

The streets are indeed mean. Practices such as forced prostitution, trafficking of women and children for the sex trade, and sex tourism also take place on our streets, within our borders, and online. All this is not even to discuss how much more vulnerable to violence are the people who live and sleep on our streets, under our bridges, and in our parks.

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Videos

Shirley’s Story - Rape, HIV/AIDS, the vulnerability of a deaf woman and immense courage and hope are all topics of this moving story:

Pictures

Violence on the Streets – A photo series by students of Cadman Academy

Poverty and homelessness
What does poverty and homelessness in the United States look like?

Coming Together is photography based research project which looks at how homeless women build support networks.
View the final report and learn more. () You can also see Photographs from the Coming Together Gallery.

And posters:

• Home should be safe and fun ()
• Surviving addictions ()
• Strength and Healing Through Helping ()
• Courage Through Friendships ()

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Children On the Bus ()
Educational Psychologist Gloria Marsay has assisted learners in the aftermath of several bus accidents. She writes about the effects on those involved, what interventions have helped, and explores ideas for reducing the heavy occurance of such traumatic accidents in countries like South Africa.

Statistics

The element of control involved in stalking behaviours is evident in the statistic that more than one third of Canadian women who experienced stalking chose not to go out alone, while 15% of them chose to change their residence.^v

v Canadian Centre for Justice Studies (2005). Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile.