July 29, 2007
Subway Harassment Largely Unreported,
According to Manhattan Beep's Survey
Last week, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer released a study finding that many New Yorkers have been harassed or assaulted on subways but most of the time, these incidents go unreported. Some key findings included:
- 63% of respondents (both male and female) reported having been sexually harassed in the New York City subway system.Stringer said, "For far too long in New York City, there’s been a credo that what happens underground stays underground. That feeds a system where women, especially, are victimized, and instead of fighting back, become afraid, ashamed, and believe that nothing can be done.... Our goal is to raise the profile of these crimes, so that the police can formulate a plan to combat them, and so that the victims can be empowered to fight back.” Here are his suggestions to ensure that riders feel safer:
- 10% reported having been sexually assaulted in the New York City subway system.
- 69% have felt the threat of sexual assault or harassment in the New York City subway system.
- 96% of respondents who indicated that they were sexually harassed did not contact the NYPD and/or the MTA to file a report or seek assistance.
- 86% of respondents who indicated that they were sexually assaulted did not contact the NYPD and/or the MTA to file a report or seek assistance
- Ensuring that the NYPD tracks subway sexual harassment and assault crimes as stand-alone offenses; tracks the prevalence of these crimes across time, borough, individual subway lines, and stations; and makes all of these statistics publicly available and easily accessible.
- Increasing NYPD presence on subway trains and in subway stations.
- Introducing and upgrading needed safety amenities throughout the transit network.
- Launching an ongoing public awareness campaign to educate riders about the risk of sexual harassment and assault in the subway system, preventive measures that riders can take, steps that victims of sexual harassment and assault can take to seek support, and the overall importance of reporting sexual harassment and assault incidents to authorities.
Second Avenue Sagas notes that the survey was emailed to 20,000 people (the Manhattan Borough President's office worked with a number of organizations, including the Straphanger's Campaign, Right Rides, NOW, Hollaback, to get out the word about the online survey), which suggests the statistics could be somewhat inflated, given that the almost 1800 respondents who did fill out the subway may have been weighted towards people who have experienced subway harassment (indeed, about 67% of the respondents are women). This is a point the study acknowledges as a limitation, but says it still serves as "an invaluable 'snapshot' of a problem that persists but is inherently difficult to quantify."
Indeed, many people (especially women) would probably say that subway rides are a time to be on the defensive. And when you are harassed or assaulted, your first inclination is to just get the hell out of there and not try to find a police officer or MTA clerk, as sometimes it can be tough to find them. Or at least that's what we wanted to do when we had to see a man pleasuring himself right next to us.
You can read the study here (PDF).
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Ok like three weeks ago on the N from Atlantic to Manhattan at 1:30 in the morning. A homeless man gets on the train with a rag over his crotch and as I read a book he whips out his ding and whacks off. I went into the next train, didn't contact an MTA "official". What is the conductor or operator going to do? Shoo him away?
I do agree with SAS blog's pov that it's improbable that these incidents occurred during rush hour. It's generally been an unwritten rule that you're on your own should you ride the subway in the middle of the night.
the only thing that happens during rush hour is the possibility of getting your pockets picked.
63%? I'd like to see the wording of the question. An informal poll led me to the answer of 0% (among 7 people polled) I don't buy it.
yeah. you ever been on the subway before? I usually walk into a car and I'm automatically the most attractive person there. There are just some UGly ass people riding the trains and I think they just feel better about themselves when they say they've been sexually harassed on the train when they know nobody would touch their asses with disinfectant. Like jen chung, the dude wasn't even sexually harassing you, he was probably jerking off to those axe body spray advertisements. I like it how women automatically say they were being sexually harassed if they are in the vicinity of a horny guy. then you could say everyone in that car was sexually harassed.
Uh, right, #4. The other night waiting for the 14th St. F, I walk down the stairs to the platform, and a moment later, the guy standing next to me whips it out and starts jerking off. Was it a direct response to me? I doubt it, but I definitely felt personally disturbed and harassed. And Jen absolutely had a right to as well. You COULD say everyone in that car was harassed, they WERE. I have way too many friends who've shared Jen's experience. Masturbating in public is fucking disgusting and unacceptable, and it counts as sexual harassment.
You know I've taken the subway for 30 years and not once have I ever seen perverts masturbating. I've seen a monkey on the train, I've seen midgets and bearded ladies. but I have never seen another dude's twig and berries. I think woman exaggerate about these things to make themselves above it and attractive or something.
Well thanks for thinking that I'm Jen Cheung. I'm not and I've been riding the trains for 20 some-odd years. The train was completely EMPTY and they guy was looking right at me. It's just the same as when some guy drove along side me as I walked home from HS (I went to a catholic school) and was masturbating in the car as he followed. Those situations are harassment and those guys should have been charged but this is NY and shit like that happens.
www.hollabacknyc.blogspot.com
..... yea, it really makes you feel like a hottie when some d-bag is harassing you. open your eyes.
sarahlucy,
thanks for the other day.
your friend from the f train.
I believe the statistics - every woman I know has had somebody cop a feel on the subway, more than once. And rush hour is worse than non-rush hour.
I hate it when a woman decides to sit next to me because she can't shake off some guy who feels like following her.
I always give her a really mean glare and say "don't bring your fucking problems to me, cunt." and walk away, telling the guy "Hey man, keep your girlfriend away from me".
The only woman I would ever help are pregnant women, or elderly women.
The rest of these women are fucking cunts who bring it on themselves, dressing like sluts and attracting the perverts to themselves. It's like smearing yourself with blood, and jumping in shark infested waters. If you want to do that, fine, just keep the hell away from me.
Ya know, thank you. Thank you for having this article. I hate riding the train in the spring and summer. I feel that's when harassment is at it's high. In a very crowded train is when it strikes from my experience. I have had numerous males put there hand flat on my rear. I have also experienced this while leaving the train doors and there is a crowd. They do it this way so you can't pick them out. I have also experience males putting them selves up against me in inappropriate closeness. I have also witnessed this happening to some one else and that woman raised a fuss right there. Who do you report this to??? Who do you turn to?
Even if EVERY single woman has been harassed on the train, EVERY ONE, this number seems fishy, unless the female ridership of the train is 63%. Who harasses men? And what man takes it as a problem? It doesn't add up.
skinna, I had a women's ass right up againstt me on a train yesterday. Was she harassing me? No, the train was crowded!
You all need to get over yourselves.
I absolutely believe that 63% percent statistic. My friend and I (16 y.o. at the time) were flashed by a homeless guy on the B Train when we were coming from school. In a subway car filled with men, not one fellow rider did anything to come to our aid as we ran out SCREAMING. Few years later, wearing a very conservative dark suit, the guy lounging across from me on an empty car on the R train was stroking his visibly erect penis while staring right at me. If that's not sexual harassment, I don't know what else qualifies. Unless you are a woman living in this city for years, you would never believe the amount of harassment that takes place on the subway. To all the trolls on this site who blame young girls or women for bringing this upon themselves, you obviously were raised by wolves. SHAME ON YOU!!!
#15. If it were 63% of women, I would believe it. (if it were 93% of women I would almost buy that too.) Point still remains that 63% is implausible. Let's even assume that women make up 53% of the subway ridership, for round numbers sake. That means that if the 63% is to be believed, 100% of women have been sexually harassed, and ~22% of men have. Bring the women's number down and the men's number up if you want, but do you really think it reasonable at at least 1 in 5 MEN have been harassed on the subway?
Like I said before, let's see the question as how it was asked and how it was phrased. It does not pass the statistical sniff test.
And as it says above, 67% of respondents to the survey were women, so the number is definitely wrong.
#15, screw you, cunt. I was put on this earth to defend three women... my mother, my sister, and my wife.
The rest of you girls can defend yourselves. As I said... it's like smearing your body with blood and jumping into shark infested waters. If you dress like a whore, you'll get the attention of perverts.
I would not walk through bedford stuyvesant at night with a wad of cash and a gold chain. I would be asking for problems, and if something would happen, cunts like you would say "he should have known better".
Same goes for you.
#18- Your logic is so flawed, it's tragic. I really feel for your mom, sister and wife having to wear a burka all the time to avoid being a called a cunt and a slut by the likes of you. Crawl back into your cave!
JKinNYC have u stopped 2 consider that maybe homosexual men have been sexually harrased?
#20. Actually, yes, but I don't find it plausible that at least 20% of men have been sexually harrassed on the subway, by gay or straight folks. Frankly, it's hard enough for gay men in the world without risking a fistfight for aggressive flirting on the subway. I guess my bias could be wrong.
Based on th 67% female response rate, and the opt-in selection bias, this study is fatally flawed. These numbers are meaningless. All they mean is that 63% of the people who wanted to respond (inherently those who had a complaint or at least something to say) felt that they had been harassed. 67% of which were women.
If we adjust the 63% to 51% women instead of 67% (women are a slightly larger fraction of the population in NYC) you wind up with 48% of people bneing harassed. That still seems insanely high to me. 20% overall I would buy, even 48% of women I would buy, but these numbers seem inflated.
I DO believe harassment on the subway is a problem, and the issue with a study this flawed is that it gives deniers ammo to shoot down the whole problem. That's what's troubling.
Some of these comments imply that it's primarily the homeless who expose themselves in the subway.
I guess everyone has forgotten about the restaurateur and serial subway masturbator, Dan Hoyt. I think he was only sentenced to probation.
There should be women-only cars--just like they have in Japan.
I disagree about women only cars. Men should be expected to control themselves.
Oh yeeeeah, nothing makes a female -- whether a 12-year-old girl or an ageing granny -- feel hotter than when she's been fondled by a hobo or forced to catch a glimpse of a dirty businessman's junk. So womanly, so attractive. And ther rest of y'all are just jealous!
All of you saying that these women and girls being harassed are "bringing it on themselves" by the way they dress make me sick. For starters, harassment doesn't only occur if you are scantily clad. It has happened to me while wearing a hoodie and jeans. Secondly, no matter how I am dressed, that DOES NOT GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO PUT YOUR FUCKING HANDS ON ME. The onus is on you to NOT harass me, not on me to stop you from harassing me. I cannot control anyone else's actions. If you tell me that you "can't help it" because of the way someone was dressed, then you should not be allowed to be a member of society. People who can't control their actions are sociopaths and are a danger to themselves and everyone around them.
To #18- you were not put on the earth to defend three women. Despite that, the fact that you seem to find them superior to other women, or any woman who isn't married, or close to her father, or has a son is asking to be harassed seriously makes me want to vomit. Please remember- people do not ASK to be harassed. I have the right to wear what I want, and I am not asking for anything. All that is required of you is to be a decent human being, and even when a man decides not to do that, it is seen as the fault of the woman. This has to change.
Oh, let me think.
Once I was standing outside of the airport at my hometown, wearing trousers and a polo shirt. However, that didn't stop some random guy in a van from staring at me and masturbating.
The other instances in which I was harassed were wearing trousers, a sweater, sneakers. Am I still "asking for it"? What else do you suggest, stop going out in the streets? Wear burkas? Stop being a woman?
The men who say that women bring harassment on themselves are interesting. If a woman brings harassment or herself by the way she looks and dresses, then the man doing the harassing cannot be held morally accountable: he is the true victim, driven to harassment by circumstances beyond his control. It follows that each man must therefore have a specific threshold for female attire, beyond which he will have no choice but to whip out his dick and jack off right there.
So, to the men here making this argument, I implore you to come clean, as it were: how sexily must a woman be dressed so that you, personally, will be driven to public masturbation on the subway?
#18, Your mother, your sister, and your wife sound like huge whores. I mean you were PUT ON THIS EARTH to defend them. They must be the biggest sluts in town. Do you feel anything when you fuck your wife? I bet her cunt is just too big and too loose. That sucks. Maybe you should try those penis-enlarger pills. Does your house smell like rotten fish when the holidays roll around and all 3 whores are together?
It must be a huge burden to have to defend not one, not two, but THREE whores. I'll pray for you to have the strength to keep on defending these cunts and bitches you have in your family. I can only imagine the number of innocent men they prey on with their whorish ways, just making these men so horny that they have to whip it out and wack it. But since they're such huge sluts I'm sure they let the men stick it in whatever hole they want to finish the job your whores started. When you come home from work and kiss your wife hello I bet it tastes like hot semen. Ugh. That really sucks. I feel for you.
I think #25 is spot on. It makes no difference what a man or woman is wearing; s/he does not, ever, deserve to be sexually harassed. The fact that those doing the harassing do not even discriminate between those they consider "hot" or not renders the point that anyone would make statements about abuse to make themselves more attractive (what a disgusting comment, that) even more invalid.
I'm a little concerned, though, about the constant referals to burkas. Sexual harassment in Egypt (where many women are veiled but do not wear the burka) and in Saudi Arabia, for example, are still huge problems - obviously, obviously, the problem is not what women are wearing.
These male subway riders are just pathetic, sexually frustrated losers. Kind of sad, really.
I agree, these fucking nyc cunts who would sooner step on than look at normal guys (who are not rich or famous). We do not even exist to these cunts, unless of course they need our help, well fuck them. I would tell the bitch to fuck off and then the guy who is stalking her, shes all yours man, I am getting off at the next stop. Fucking fake ass cocktease NYC bitches deserve it.
I agree, these fucking nyc cunts who would sooner step on than look at normal guys (who are not rich or famous). We do not even exist to these cunts, unless of course they need our help, well fuck them. I would tell the bitch to fuck off and then the guy who is stalking her, shes all yours man, I am getting off at the next stop. Fucking fake ass cocktease NYC bitches deserve it.
http://nosexinnyc.blogspot.com/
Here are my opinions about the topic
http://nosexinnyc.blogspot.com/
The MTA is encourageing this. Read about it here:
http://nosexinnyc.blogspot.com/
The MTA is encouraging this. Read it here
http://nosexinnyc.blogspot.com/