Rise in sexual assault reports across South Yorkshire
Stats exclusively obtained by Hallam show the number of people reporting sexual assault to police in South Yorkshire's gone up by almost a half
Hallam can reveal there’s been a rise of almost a half in the number of sexual assaults reported to South Yorkshire Police in the past three years.
Stats show more than a thousand were recorded by police last year – up from 715 in 2014.
By the end of October this year, there’d already been as many incidents reported as there were in the whole of 2016.
Police say it’s partly down to a change in the way they’re recording crimes but also that more victims are having the confidence to report.
Michelle Webster from Sheffield Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre agrees:
“Quite often it’s not strangers, it’s friends, it’s colleagues, it’s family members. We’re seeing a big increase because lots more people are coming forward. People are now understanding, perhaps by what’s happening in the media, that actually we don’t have to accept this. This is not part of being a woman. This is abuse.
“It’s time for us to say enough is enough – we’re not accepting it any longer. We support survivors and we want to make sure that everybody knows that it’s not acceptable. They don’t have to accept it and it’s not about us changing our behaviours, it’s about saying this shouldn’t be happening.”
It comes after recent sex abuse scandals in Hollywood and Westminster which prompted a social media campaign where survivors of abuse or harassment tweeted with the hashtag #MeToo.
Michelle says that’s really helped encourage people come forward to report incidents:
“It was amazing to see members of your own family that’d never spoken about sexual abuse or harassment suddenly putting on Facebook or tweeting that it’d happened to them too. I think we’ve stopped being surprised by this but that doesn’t mean to say that we just accept it.
“Each time something like that happens, people finds it in themselves, that bravery to step forward and say this happened to me too and now I realise that someone might believe me.”
Detective Supt Melanie Palin from South Yorkshire Police said:
“The increase in recorded sexual assaults in South Yorkshire reflects increases seen across the country. Over recent years, changes have taken place nationally in respect to the way in which sexual offences are recorded. This has led to more effective and accurate recording of offences and subsequently more crimes being recorded.
“In addition, high levels of media attention and awareness raising in relation to sexual offences has led to more victims coming forward to report matters to either the police or other professionals, who then refer these matters to us. Historically, victims may not have had the understanding or confidence to come forward and report to the police.
“I would continue to encourage people to report such incidents to us”
It comes as a new campaign, Know The Line, has been launched to tackle sexual harassment across South Yorkshire.