“I Want to be Able to Walk the Street Without Fear”: Transforming Justice for Street Harassment

Abstract

The practices comprising the analytic category of street harassment are rarely responded to through either criminal or restorative justice approaches, and the possibilities for transformative justice have to date not been considered. In this article we advocate for a victim-centred justice response to street harassment, specifically examining the potential for transformative justice to function in this way. Drawing on data from a recent Australian study, we examine participants' understandings of justice and desired justice responses to street harassment. Participants' responses drew attention to a range of perceived shortcomings of the formal justice system as a mechanism for responding to street harassment. Instead, participants advocated for a justice response concerned with transforming cultural and structural norms, in particular gender norms. We end in an examination of the limitations of transformative justice, looking to recent work on ''kaleidoscopic justice'' as a way of transforming common conceptions of justice itself.

Naming the Unspeakable Harm of Street Harassment: A Survey-Based Examination of Disclosure Practices

“…For the first participant quoted here, her reluctance to disclose experiences of harassment was tied to the perception that there was little that could be done in response to street harassment. There is a sense of resignation: harassment is an insurmountable facet of existing in public space, and this is no doubt reinforced by the general absence of legal or policy-based responses to street harassment (Fileborn & Vera-Gray, 2017;Kearl, 2015;Nielsen, 2000). For the second participant, the routine, frequent nature of street harassment made it emotionally laborious to disclose: the emotional labor required in disclosing can outweigh the perceived harm of the incident and the potential benefits of disclosure.…”

“…. What constitutes street harassment is highly context-dependent, with these practices perhaps best understood through their function, rather than form (Fileborn & Vera-Gray, 2017;Vera-Gray, 2016).…”

“…Although a diffuse array of experiences fall under the banner of “street harassment,” definitions commonly include actions such as staring, ogling, wolf-whistling, unwanted verbal comments, following someone, car-horn honking, and groping, while some definitions also include sexual assault and rape (Gardner, 1995; Logan, 2015; Vera-Gray, 2016). What constitutes street harassment is highly context-dependent, with these practices perhaps best understood through their function , rather than form (Fileborn & Vera-Gray, 2017; Vera-Gray, 2016).…”

“…For example, in contrast to other forms of sexual violence, street harassment is predominantly perpetrated by strangers rather than partners or known others. Street harassment is much more likely to involve fleeting and brief interactions in public or semi-public spaces and features a much broader and diffuse array of behaviors including potentially ambiguous interactions such as staring and unwanted conversation, while the impacts of these experiences are often cumulative rather than (though sometimes as well as) discrete in nature (Davis, 1994; Fileborn & Vera-Gray, 2017; Gardner, 1995; Vera-Gray, 2017). Thus, it is unclear to what extent the extant literature on disclosure applies to street harassment, and there are likely differences in disclosure practices and experiences between these contexts.…”

Justice for victims of sexual abuse and harassment: lessons for Westminster?

“…But it can form part of an overall response. If not managed by specialists, mediation approaches can perpetuate harm; but when victims are properly supported by specialists who can reduce the intensity of their participation, they are valued by victims because of the recognition involved (Fileborn and Vera-Gray, 2017).…”