Whether it’s the lingering morning coffee breath or narrowly avoiding an elbow to the face as you find yourself squashed somewhere between bad body odour and swallowing someone’s hair, travelling on the Tube can be traumatic to say the very least.
However, while a busy morning commute should come as expected as part of living in such a vibrant city that is London, what shouldn’t be common place while travelling to and from work is sexual assault.
What is Sexual Assault?
Sexual assault is defined as ‘an act in which a person intentionally sexually touches another person without that person’s consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will’.
What would sexual assault look like while travelling on the tube? Victims of sexual assault while travelling on London Underground have complained of being inappropriately touched, groped or grabbed in the buttock or genitalia area, to aroused perpetrators placing their genitalia on unsuspecting victims’ body while standing close to them on the tube. There have even been incidents of perpetrators masturbation while standing close to unsuspecting commuters while travelling on a busy London Underground train.
Other incidents of sexual assault can include sexual comments or someone taking photos of you of a sexual nature without your consent.
How many sexual assault incidents are reported on London Underground?
According to statistics published by Transport for London, there were approximately 1,103 incidents of sexual assaults on the London Underground reported from 2017 to 2018. Yet worryingly, 90% of unwanted sexual behaviour on London transport still goes unreported.
Now, campaigners and victims of sexual assault on London Underground are calling for more to be done to tackle sexual assault while travelling on the tube. More particularly, campaigning for more CCTV cameras to be installed on London Underground tubes.
How many CCTV Cameras are there on London Underground?
As it stands, there are 77,000 CCTV cameras currently in operation across London’s transport network, with 3,000 police and police community support officers dedicated to catching offenders.
However, the Central Line, the busiest and longest line in London currently has no CCTV cameras installed on its carriages. Plans are in place to eventually install CCTV cameras on all 85 trains currently operating on the Central Line, however, CCTV operations are currently scheduled not to be installed until 2023.
Until then, the 100 million passengers that journey a year via the Central Line will have to travel on a train with no security operations and CCTV in place.
Reporting sexual assault on London Underground
Transport for London have launched the Report it to stop it campaign which sets to promote ways in which victims of sexual assault can report incidents to transport authorities, and to ultimately tackle unwanted sexual behaviour on public transport.
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