Stopping Sexual Street Harassment in Jamaica

Title: Stopping Sexual Street Harassment in Jamaica

Thesis: Street sexual harassment is a major public health problem in Jamaica and very little is done to resolve it. 

Central question: What is the prevalence of street sexual harrasment in Jamaica, what is already being done to improve this issue and what recommendations is being done to address this?

Who is the audience: Average person in the US and possibly Jamaica, english speaking 

What does the audience need to know to understand your story:

    -- Street sexual harassment , sexual harassment is repeated unwanted sexual attention and street sexual harasment is harassment between strangers or in a  public space

    -- The sexual harasment act was passed in 2021, however it only covers sexual harrasment in the workplace ( employer and employee), and not public/street sexual harrasment and may never will based on researched statement 

    -- “see n’ blind , hear n’ deaf” is a saying in Jamaica that means if it does not affect you personally, it should be left alone. 

   -- Street sexual harrasment is an endemic

CONTENT WARNING: The following podcast  will talk about  street sexual harrasment and may be triggering or disturbing to some listeners or readers. 

*soft intro music*

Interviewee: “Street harassment Sexual harassment is a major challenge in Jamaica. We've seen it well. Personally, I can give you my personal experience being someone who doesn't. Essentially, you know, you know, manifests in the typical female feminine gender with my hair that it's cut low. I often experience street sexual harassment. Hey, girl, with  your short hair. Come here. I want to do this and that with you. And then they play on it to say, Hey, are you a lesbian? Because my haircut is low. So I experience street harassment”

*soft intro music*

Narrator: Most people do not remember a time when street sexual harrasment was not an issue in Jamaica. It is seen everywhere. From as small as catcalling to as big as getting groped on public transportation.

Policy and Advocacy officer at JNplus , Kimberly Roach also shared her personal experience with this issue. 

* soft intermediate music*

Narrator: But first, what is street sexual harrasment. Sexual harassment is unwanted sexual attention and advances. It is a domination of power, usually by men. Street sexual harassment is harasment between strangers and usually in a public place, like public transportation. 

Narrator: However, there has been very little attention from academic researchers and government policy makers. It took 23 emails, 11 missed calls and 9 messages to social media before I received a response from JNPlus, an organization that was willing to talk about street sexual harrasment. JNPlus primarily deals with HIV positive women that suffer from Gender Based Violence and Intimate Partner Violence also known as GBV and IPV that are also problems in the community that stem from street sexual harrasment.  So let’s hear from Kimberly Roach on what JNplus is.  

Interviewee: OK, so Jam Plus is essentially again is an organization, an advocacy organization that essentially looks at the policies and laws that impacts persons living with HIV. Pertaining to sexual harassment, I would say that street sexual harassment is that we see that GBV and IPV which sexual harassment is a part of impacts the lives of persons living with HIV, but more so it's also a cause that, you know, plays into the whole HIV prevention because we want to tackle GBV. So it doesn't, you know, impact many other young women and other women who may experience GBV. They also, you know, are susceptible to transmitting HIV and also, you know, getting impacted by the virus.

*soft music* 

Narrator: The problem of street sexual harrasment begins in the community.  According to reports, 41% of Jamaican teen women fall victim to this crime. It is underreported however, because the culture and mentality shuns people from talking about this. It is called the “see n’ blind, hear n’ deaf” mentality. 

*haunty intermediate music* 

Interviewee:“Citizens often silenced themselves because, you know, they don't want to talk about certain issues in the public sphere. They don't want to talk about sexual harassment in the public sphere. They don't want to talk about even sex in the public sphere. And they definitely don't want to talk about HIV in the public sphere. So it's it's a it's a ingrained cultural attitude where persons generally don't talk about certain issues that they may think is taboo pertaining to sexual harassment. It often silences victims. Persons are often scared to talk about their experiences because, you know, a victim blaming, they're going to say, Oh, it's your fault because you, you should not have worn this or are anything to blame the person who is a victim of this sexual harassment? Now, It also impacts how other people view sexual harassment. Because we have this cloak of silence over sexual harassment. Persons usually don't say anything when they see it happen to other women or Vulnerable women or young women within the society. They don't talk about it. They don't go in and say, Hey, stop this, or they don't even advocate against it. And that cause, you know, the awareness when it comes down to sexual harassment, it cause the awareness to be significantly reduce where persons don't even know that they're experiencing sexual harassment because nobody really talks about it.”

Narrator: So if it is not talked about, how do we know it is a problem? Well, one of the indicators is in the music. 

* sound mimicking popular dancehall tunes* 

Interviewee: “Regarding to music, Yes there is toxic masculinity that is displayed throughout dancehall, where he talks about women in forms of inanimate objects. You know, they don't look at women as holistic beings and their project a sexual, you know, objectivity on women. They objectify women. So yes, the culture does play a major role in how, you know, we view sexuality, we view women, and it plays our role in how this generation and the generation before played into sexual harassment. Yeah. ”

Narrator: Women as objects. This definitely plays a role in its prevalence. Research states that this can cause PTSD, lack of concentration in the workplace, and other mental health issues. Mental health that is also not talked about in Jamaica.

*sad soft music*

Interviewee: “Jamaica has yet to recognize the impact sexual harassment has on a person's been both physically and mentally. We don't have a lot of access to, you know, mental health care in Jamaica, and it's also a taboo topic. So a lot of times persons who are victims of sexual harassment or even rape, they internalized what has happened to them, and they don't have much space to discuss the issue. we in Jamaica definitely need to have more spaces that, you know, look for the holistic wellness of persons, including their mental health, and particularly for persons who are experiencing sexual violence or even harassment. They need to have social services that targets this type of work, mental health and other ways to to get over trauma that they may face.”

Narrator: So you see, in public places, street sexual harrasment is a problem. But it can only start being resolved with the government's help. In 2021, the Jamaican Senate passed an act that covers sexual harrasment in certain scenarios. Like the workplace. But is that enough? 

Interviewee: “So I'm happy that Jamaica, you know, is going forward and enacted this bill in late 2021, where sexual harassment is now covered in the law and it covers both prevention and protection. It protects essentially women and men. It protects persons who may face sexual harassment in unique situations, such as the landlord and tenant in the workplace, in the church and so on. But the bill, I think what is a gap in the bill is that it doesn't really speaks to street harassment, street sexual harassment. And for me, in the Jamaican society, that's where most persons experience sexual harassment is in the streets. So what I would recommend is that we looked at innovative ways of capturing street harassment in, you know, some sort of amendment that may come later at a later time. But I'm happy that the Jamaican government enacted this bill. It's well needed. Persons here do face a lot of sexual harassment in the workplace between tenants and landlords and so on. And it's great to see that we are taking this step to to enact this bill. But there's much more to be done. We need to ensure that sexual harassment street harassment is also a major tenant in this law so that persons on the street feel safe navigating the society every day and not just in your relationship to your landlord or not just in the workplace, but more so on a societal level and not so much on the institutional level where it's protected now”

*hopeful instrumental music*

Narrator: Many steps need to be taken to resolve street sexual harrasment. Education on sexual harrasment in public schools should be introduced to the curriculum. Social issues like the bystander effect, which is when the presence of others prevents a person from intervening in an emergency situation, need to be tackled. Bystander effect is a major resolved step since street sexual harrasment is a issue that happens in the public. JN plus has also been putting in the work to better this issue. 

Interviewee: “Ok so at JN plus we primarily deal with women who are living with HIV. So some of the work that we've been doing recently is to upscale our GBV response. So part of our GBV response is ensuring that all in our community of positive women understand what GBV is, which is inclusive of sexual harassment for those who face, you know, more violent forms of sexual harassment or any form of GBV who need, you know, psychosocial help then we have, what do you  call it ,a psychologist, sorry on board at our organization, where we recommend women who are experiencing that type of thing. Well, also, we have support groups where we talk about this thing among our women, and we also educate men who are also a part, are members of our organization about umGBV and sexual harassment and why it's not OK. But also an important aspect of this is that recently we've been developing an advocacy plan specifically for positive women where um they talk about the issues that women living with HIV are facing. And one of those major issues is street harassment, community harassment and so on. So we're going to essentially ramp up advocacy to talk about this specific type of harassment  more vulnerable people face ,and how we would like to see amendments in legislation to protect them from that type of harassment. But we educate both men and women, but we put a focus on ensuring that our women have support systems as well,  in our support groups, as well as, you know, the mental health care that they need.”

*soft music* 

Narrator:What more can be done to tackle this issue? People on bus transport should be limited and public spaces should be more lit. Articles also suggest there should be stronger community leaders that will research and educate their communities on this issue. This has been done in countries such as Belize and the Bahamas that have approved laws against sexual harassment and have media campaigns that are also against it. JN plus also had recommendations on how to resolve this issue. 

Interviewee: “One of the recommendations that we we think would help is to have broad cultural sensitization about gender based violence and street sexual harassment, what it is, why it's not OK, and how it impacts the life of persons who are victims and also, you know, the persons who perpetuate this type of thing. So we definitely think a cultural shift behavior shift would happen if we have more awareness around it. But that is only useful when you also have legislation that could, you know, also put those who are doing this type of thing to the victims to ensure that they face the brunt of the law. So we also believe that even though we have a sexual harassment act, that a part of the amendments we'd like to see is persons who essentially harass persons because of their, you know, their sexual health if you're living with HIV or any other thing. So we want the law to also cover that type of stigma and discrimination as well. So those are the main  two recommendations that we have from JN Plus.”

*more hopeful instrumental music*

Narrator: Even though street sexual harrasment is a tough issue, it can be resolved. If the community and the government go hand in hand in minimizing this issue, there will be a community of peace. 

*end with faster upbeat music*

This podcast was produced by Lacey-Ann Reynolds for the Spring 2022 Global Health course at Guilford College.

References

1. Amnesty International. (2006). Sexual Violence Against Women and Girls in Jamaica:'just a Little Sex'. Amnesty International, International Secretariat.

1. Kingston, J. (2012). Sexual harassment and sexual harassment policy in Jamaica: the absence of a national sexual harassment policy, and the way forward. Asian Journal of Business Management, 4(1), 1-19.

1. Smith, D. E., McLean Cooke, W. C., & Morrison, S. S. (2020). A discussion on sexual violence against girls and women in Jamaica. Journal of Sexual Aggression, 26(3), 334–345. https://doi.org/10.1080/13552600.2019.1643505