SPF Defends Anti-Molestation Posters After AWARE Criticizes Them For Overlooking Victims

If you have been to the MRT station, you might have seen a couple of those crime prevention posters warning would-be perpetrators about the potential consequences that they might face if they commit a crime.

Here’s are some posters in case if you have no idea what I am talking about.

The series of posters was designed by students from Singapore Polytechnic’s Media, Arts and Design school after they were given a brief to revamp the visuals of the police’s crime prevention campaign.

When I first saw the posters, I thought it was pretty creative.

However, with regards to the last poster, the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE), a women’s rights group, has come forth to say otherwise.

AWARE Criticised Anti-Molestation Poster

AWARE put up photos of two anti-molestation posters that warned perpetrators about the penalities for the outrage of modesty on their Facebook page.

Each poster featured a price tag on the perpetrators’ hands. The phrases “Don’t Do It” and “2 years’ imprisonment: It is not worth it” were written.

In the Facebook post, AWARE questioned the way in which sexual violence was portrayed in the poster.

AWARE’s gripe was that the poster featured the price the perpetrator would have to pay for his crimes but failed to mention the price the woman would have to pay, in terms of the harm and trauma inflicted upon her.

“Why are we putting a price on sexual violence at all, like it’s a commodity to purchase and consume?”, they wrote.

Police Defends The Poster 

In a statement released on 16 November, a spokesperson from the Singapore Police Force said that AWARE may have misunderstood the purpose of the posters.

According to the spokesperson, the purpose of the poster was to deter potential perpetrators by highlighting the punishments for committing the criminal act.

The authorities mentioned that the posters were designed to warn would-be offenders who were unable to exercise self-discipline or control themselves, “regardless of their knowledge of the harm that their actions will cause to the victim”.

Police Mindful Of The Hurt That Victims Suffer From 

While the police “fully acknowledged” that victims of outrage of modesty suffer from trauma and other consequences, they said the poster would unlikely have the intended deterrent effects if the design was based on that.

“We feel that crime prevention messages would be more impactful if it highlighted the personal costs to the perpetrator.”

An SP spokesperson said in a statement that the thought process behind the poster was that it would “capture the attention of potential offencers and remind them of the severe consequences of such crimes”.

In the statement, the authorities said it was unfortunate that AWARE had made their own public judgement against the police without any attempt to contact them to understand their perspective.

It is understood that AWARE has worked with the police in the past to enhance support for victims of sexual offences.