Indecent exposure: The impact upon the victim's fear of sexual crime

Abstract

In an attempt to assess the overall frequency and impact of indecent exposure on women's lives and also to elicit women's fear of sexual crime in general, 72 women were questioned. Of the subjects, 35 (48.6%) had been the victim of indecent exposure, 13 (37.1%) of these on two or more occasions. The women agree that indecent exposers are dangerous and cause great distress. Furthermore, women perceive the offence to be trivialized by the police, and by men in general. Indecent exposure greatly impinges on women's spatial and social freedom and serves to reinforce their fears of sexual crime.

Key Words:

• indecent exposure
• reluctance to report
• dangerousness
• trivializing by males