It is difficult to answer when you only have a few seconds to elaborate a strategy. To anticipate such a situation, Hollaback! and the Women’s Foundation developed the anti-street harassment “Stand Up”. The former institution is a well-known American non-profit organization aiming to end harassment and the latter is a French foundation that finances many associations fighting violence against women. Their anti-harassment programme offers training to help people react to and stop sexual harassment in public spaces. Two online trainings of 15 minutes, aimed either at the victim or a witness of street harassment, are proposed at this address: https://www.standup-international.com/fr/fr/training/landing.
The programme "If you witness street harassment” presents the 5D methodology (delegate, distract, document, direct, dialogue), in which each "D" is a method you can use if you witness street harassment.
Delegate: Seek help from a person in authority (bus driver, security guard, bar manager...)
Distract: Act indirectly to prevent the situation from escalating by starting a conversation with the victim or finding another way to divert the stalker's attention. Pretend to be friend with the victim, ask for the time or for directions, drop something falsely by accident... Anything that might distract the stalker and potentially stop the harassment.
Document (be careful, this method poses a safety risk to yourself or the victim): Film the incident or take pictures. It can prove very useful if the victim decides to press charges and needs to provide evidence. If you feel safe enough to use this technique, remember to stand at a remote distance, say the date and time aloud and film the road signs or any other evidence that may help to identify the time and place of the crime. Please use this method cautiously because if the perpetrator realises what you’re doing, it could anger him/her and affect your safety or the victim’s safety.
Direct approach: It is the most dangerous method and is meant to be used only as a last resort. If you feel safe enough to do so (and only in this case), step in and intervene by asking directly the perpetrator to stop, positioning yourself between him/her and the victim and asking other persons for support. Use a calm and steady voice. Avoid physical confrontation as much as possible.
Dialogue: Right after the end of incident, calmly talk with the victim and try to reassure him/her if you can ("Can I sit next to you? Do you want me to ask for help? Do you want to get out of here?"). Underline it is the aggressor’s fault, that this behaviour is illegal and that he/she hasn’t down anything wrong any way. It is very important to show compassion for the victim right after an incident.
