Many women are both verbally and sexually harassed everyday. Most women do not even report these offenses even though it is a criminal offense according to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.[1] About a year ago, a man on a crowded Queens-bound W train sexually harassed a woman named Violet Kittappa. She tried to ignore the man until she felt him nudge her on the leg and could feel him heavily breathing on her. Because of these many attacks on women, companies like Apple and Verizon are helping fight back.
The iPhone and Android are both coming out with applications that will allow users to report the offender within seconds. The iPhone application cost about $15, 000 to develop.[2] It was financed through online donations and built by a company called OrangeMico. This company is a technology firm based out of Brooklyn that specializes in high performance computing and smart phone applications.[3] Jill P. Diamond, who is studying for her doctorate at Georgia Tech in domestic violence and technology, developed the Android application.[4] With this new application, users can now take photographs of the men who accosted them and publicize the pictures. These pictures will then either assist the police in arresting these criminals, embarrass the men who have harassed them, or both.[5] In addition, there are also many blogs women can take advantage of such as ihollaback.org.[6] The blogs allow women to talk to talk about their different stories. Through these blogs women are comforted in the fact that they are not the only ones out there that had such a terrible thing happen to them.
Technology is a positive way for all people to fight against something they believe in. These phone applications are only ninety-nine cents and are being used to put criminals in jail for extremely repulsive acts. Why wouldn’t you purchase this application? No man would ever want their wife, daughter, sister, relative, or any close family friends to even be touched by one of these men. I know my father would make sure any one that ever touched me was put in jail. The iPhone and Android applications are just doing that. They can also be used as a protection device for many women against these people. If this application becomes extremely effective, it will also increase the sales of both products. You would be crazy to not have one of these phones because you never know when something will happen to you. Violet Kittappa did not know that she was going to be harassed by a man on the subway that day, but these things happen to many different women all over the world every day. It is just the reality of life, but at least these new technological devices will help put these men away.
Technology is rapidly increasing. Five years ago would you have thought that you would be able to catch a criminal by taking his picture on your phone? With the new iPhone and Android applications, it will not only increase the demand for these two phone, but it will also decrease the number of sex offenders and the number of harassment cases. Women across the globe are going to use this application to help put these men in jail. If it were not for the technological advances, these people would still be getting away with all of these terrible offenses.
[1] http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/titlevii.cfm
[2]http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/08/nyregion/08hollaback.html?ref=technology
[3] http://www.orangemico.com/
[4]http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/08/nyregion/08hollaback.html?ref=technology
[5]http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/08/nyregion/08hollaback.html?ref=technology
[6]http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/08/nyregion/08hollaback.html?ref=technology
1 comment:
In theory, applications that prevent and/or punish sexual harassment seem desirable; however, there are some major downfalls. Most of us would agree that any device or program that allows you to report an offender would increase awareness and decrease perpetration, but would it realistically lead to more arrests and convictions?
The sheer volume of the reports received by police would be immense. It’s not realistic that police departments would remove a warm body from the field and have him or her focus all of their attention on the complaints received from a smart phone application. It’s likely that very few of these complaints will ever even be considered for a follow up investigation or any further action. The majority of the reports will either be discarded or will accumulate en mass on an unregulated website. If the latter is true, then the applications could very easily be used for agendas other than their original intention. Without any regulations on the use of the application and any restrictions on its users, misuse would likely be more common and the validity of the reports would all come into question.
The questionable validity of the results would make it even less likely that any officers of the law would hold this program in high esteem. Ultimately, the worth of these applications would be determined by the way in which down loaders manipulate them. It seems entirely too obvious that without regulation the primary use of the application would be practical jokes, jealous ex-lovers, or people with other unimaginable vendettas(1). Any application that claims to assist others in lawful practices of reporting crimes, such as harassment, would be of no use to society as a whole if it did not hold its users accountable for their reports.
1. http://www.nytimes.com
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