Toward procedural justice for racially minoritised young women reporting public sexual harassment to the police Nadia Jessop, Trish Chinzara, Nathalie Noret, Beth Bell, Vanita Sundaram

Event details

The University of York’s SHaRE IT! Project has been working collaboratively with young people to examine the extent to which perceptions of a lack of police procedural justice acts as a barrier to reporting public sexual harassment (PSH) to the police.

Our project involved listening to the experiences and reflections of racially minoritised young women. Our participants shared with us their personal experiences of public sexual harassment and offered invaluable insights into their hesitations about reporting to the police. This event is an opportunity to hear what reporting mechanisms our participants used and how best young women would like to be supported and/or encouraged when considering their options to report public sexual harassment. We will also be sharing the results of our rapid evidence review, which explored: 1) barriers to reporting sexual assault, sexual harassment and other forms of gender-based violence; 2) approaches to reducing those barriers to reporting; and 3) what works in enhancing police procedural justice. Specifically, we will address the promise of procedurally just police practices for enhancing perceptions of trust, neutrality, and voice when racially minoritised young women are the ones who need to report to the police.

Our online event is designed to help bridge the gap between racially minoritised young women and the police. We believe that hearing our findings will provide invaluable insights for police officers, sexual harassment officers and other members of charitable and authority/reporting bodies. We aim to to work collaboratively and encourage discussions with the goal of creating a more accessible and procedurally just law enforcement response to public sexual harassment.