JCU Students Reluctant to Report Street Harassment Near Campuses

Victim blaming and no ‘visible results’ discourage students from reporting street harassment in Rome. Student Affairs urges students to report and seek support.

News

By Paula Gasser | Newsreporter

This article addresses the subject of gender violence, including street harassment as a form of sexual assault.

More than five JCU students came forward to give testimony for this news report of repeated instances of street harassment that they experienced in Trastevere this year, including stalking, being followed home, indecent exposure and catcalling.

Students have the right to remain anonymous under journalistic code of ethics and practice.

The tendency among these students has been to not report their experiences. Four of the five students have said that, at the time of the assault, they saw it as a “waste of time” to report to JCU or to the police, although they also said that, looking back, they wish they had reported immediately.

The five students said that at the time of the assault, they were advised by other students not to report, since the police would “do nothing” to help.

The National Sexual Violence Research center, an organization that gives information and statistics for journalists, states that 63% of sexual assaults in the United States are not reported to police.

“I asked for my friend’s opinion on whether I should or shouldn’t report what happened to the police,” said M.P. “She told me that they wouldn’t do anything about it.”

An abuser assaulted M.P. when he was walking home with a friend after a theatre performance in the street near the sushi restaurant Koi, in Piazza Ippolito Nievo last semester, at around 11 p.m.

“I then decided that I didn’t want to go to the police because it’s not that easy to do,” he said. “And if the police aren’t going to do anything, and it’s not going to change anything, then there is no use in reporting.”

In Italy, 35 percent of young people surveyed in 2021 say they feel “less safe” in public meeting points like city center, streets, squares, and parks. About 34 percent of respondents said they feel less safe in bars and clubs.

An abuser assaulted G.Z. in the middle of the day last semester on her way to class in Largo Fiorentini.

“I didn’t really have the guts to go to the police or to someone else just because in some ways I was scared,” said G.Z. “And I also knew that they wouldn’t really do anything about it.”

“Since I didn’t take a picture or a video, and I didn’t know who the guy was, I knew they wouldn’t do anything about it, and the case would be dismissed,” said G.Z.

Istat’s research shows that 80% of women in Rome have reported experiencing some form of street harassment, ranging from catcalling and unwanted comments to physical touching. This percentage excludes the women who have not reported assaults, meaning that the actual number of women who have experienced some type of assault in the streets is likely much higher.

Another student suffered an assault on her way to class in Largo Fiorentini at 3.p.m. last April. She contacted the former Associate Dean of students Ariana Damaske, who assigned the Residence Director at the time, Marica Loffreda, to accompany her to the police station.

“At the station, the police officer who assisted us was not very understanding or attentive, and had a very negative and unwelcoming attitude,” she said. “I felt like I was wasting everyone’s time, that I shouldn’t have gone, and that I shouldn’t have taken so long to report, since three weeks had already gone by since the assault.”

The student said that she “felt judged” by the male police officer who assisted them, saying she regretted going in the end, because of his dismissive attitude and arrogant demeanor.

The officer asked her to repeat the same information for about 20 minutes.

“The entire time I felt I was repeating myself,” she said. The police officer appeared to be judging me for having gone to report something so common, she says.

Research indicates that victim-blaming attitudes marginalize victims and survivors, making it harder for them to come forward and report the abuse. If survivors know that society blames them for the abuse, they will not feel safe or comfortable coming forward and talking to people.

“I feel that, especially here in Italy, people don’t actually care if you’ve been harassed or even assaulted,” said K.S, who said she was followed by a man on her way home at night, in Via di Torre Argentina. “Nothing ever happens. I’ve heard stories from other girls where they actually reported, and they are then demonized by others for it. They’re called ‘whores’ and are blamed for what they went through.”’

JCU’s Dean of Students, Lisa M. Guido, says that reporting incidents to the university “is crucial” as it can help the university create a “safer environment” and prevent similar issues from happening.

“Every report matters,” says Dean Guido. “Even if an incident seems minor, it may be part of a larger trend that we can only address with your input. Reporting helps protect not just you, but your peers and future students.”

Students can report incidents by contacting the JCU’s Student Affairs Team either in person or via email. They will be asked to share the time, location, and description of individuals involved.

“We ensure reports are taken seriously and followed through with care,” said Dean Guido.

According to the dean, JCU has a “strong relationship with local and state police” and communicates regularly about ongoing issues and trends with the authorities, who then can provide support as needed.

“It is also important to report so we can keep them updated,” said Guido. “Prompt reporting helps ensure appropriate action and prevents future incidents.”

Roman Clark, JCU’s Senior Director of Community Standards and Minors Program says that if one student reports, this can encourage others to report as well.

“We want all students to feel that they can file a report,” said Clark. “This doesn’t mean the experience won’t be stressful at all,” said Clark.

Clark said that because a great majority of students who experience harassment are women, and reporting can often be quite traumatic, they often connect them to a woman superintendent at one of the police stations in their trusted neighborhood, so that they can feel more comfortable with the act of reporting.

A female superintendent in Trastevere Police Station has experience assisting students, and she’s also assisted members of the JCU community in the past.

“The benefit of reporting is that you hold [abusers] accountable,” said Clark. “In this way, we can keep the community a safer place, especially if we have instances of violence or repeated behavior.”

According to Clark, when an outcome might not meet the expectation of a student, they may feel that it was a pointless exercise, which is understandable, but it doesn’t mean that nothing did happen.

“Let’s say the outcome of the case is not what you’re expecting; still, the act of reporting and seeing somebody else report, can encourage other people who may be feeling more intimidated to do so, so it could have that kind of indirect effect,” said Clark.

Clark leads the relatively new Office of Community Standards, which follows a similar structure to Title IX, a federal civil rights law in United States that protects students from sex discrimination and harassment.

“I don’t think everybody knows of the existence of this office,” Clark said. “So, if a student reports something to a professor or a staff member, they might not know where to send the student.”

The staff is currently working on making the existence of the office better known, located in the Lungara 3 Building.

In the past, JCU had a Title IX coordinator, two deputies, and a team of responsible employees who reported to the team. Today, Italian staff still follow the spirit of the legislation, but the team is slightly different. The “Title IX ” in JCU looks different in an Italian context compared to universities in the United States.

“Everybody here has the right to an environment free of hostility and discrimination,” said Clark. “And if you don’t report it, you’re basically agreeing to be in an environment where you can’t have what you’ve told you can have. On the other hand, another community member is able to break the rules with no consequences.”

According to Dr. Jose B. Alvarez, the VP for Strategic Initiatives & Operations at John Cabot, there are possible reasons as to why students are reluctant to report their experiences. He said that one might be because they do not see visible results, which in turn can make them think that nothing is being done, when in fact, he said he personally has seen the police acting on reports that have been made.

VP Alvarez advises students not to be out too late at night and to always walk in groups. As part of his safety recommendations for students, he says situational awareness is the importance of knowing one’s surroundings.

“Because we never know someone’s true intentions, it’s better to be safe than sorry,” he said.

Students say they would want abusers to suffer consequences for their actions, and this was probably not going to happen even if they talked to the police.

A survey published this year shows that 16 percent of surveyed women in Italy in 2018 say they were the victims of “insistent staring,” one of the most common types of harassment recorded in the survey. The second most common type of harassment was whistling, with 10 percent of Italian women saying this had happened in the past year.

In Italy, street harassment is considered an administrative offense, not criminal. Since 2015, the Italian penal code Article 726 decriminalized street harassment

How to Report Street Harassment

JCU offers support to students who want to report. Students can access JCU’s website page and click on “complaint form” at the left of the screen to write and submit their complaint.