Women are being forced to change their behaviours due to the high levels of flashing and cyberflashing they are exposed to, according to new research co-led by our Law School.
Cyberflashing - generally sending images of a penis to someone without their consent - is "alarmingly common" in the lives of young women with nearly half saying they had experienced it.
Women are almost three times as likely to experience cyberflashing as men and over three times as likely to experience in-person sexual exposure (flashing).
As a result, women are restricting their online activities and changing their behaviours in public. This includes avoiding walking or exercising in certain places or not going out alone because they feel unsafe.
"Shockingly high levels of sexual exposure"
Professor Clare McGlynn, of Durham Law School, and Professor Fiona Vera-Gray, of London Metropolitan University, led on the largest ever representative UK survey looking at people's experiences of sexual exposure.
Over 4,000 women and men were questioned on their experiences and the effects this had on them.
They found that women experience "shockingly high levels of sexual exposure" - both flashing and cyberflashing - across their lives.
Thirty percent of women have been victims of sexual exposure in their lifetime and 23% have experienced cyberflashing. This compares to 9% (in-person exposure) and 8% (cyberflashing) for men.
Nearly half of young women experience cyberflashing
Nearly half (45%) of 18-to-24-year-old women reported that they had been victims of cyberflashing, compared to 15% of men.
Twenty-six percent of women restrict their online activity as a result, compared to 11% of men.
Twenty-seven percent of women avoid certain routes when walking or exercising and 23% avoid going out alone, compared to just 3% of men.
Some women reported that they avoid using public transport, don't use public toilets unless it is an emergency, or have altered how they dress.
Overall, half of women victims of sexual exposure (52% in-person and 49% online) felt less safe compared to around one fifth (19%) of male victims.
Informing new training for police forces
The research was commissioned by the College of Policing and is being used to inform new training and guidance for police forces in England and Wales. To date, over 60,000 officers have undertaken the new training.
It follows The Angiolini Inquiry, which was established after the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer whose previous non-contact sexual offending had been ignored and minimised.
