The Singapore Police Force has defended a series of crime prevention posters that have been criticised for being insensitive to outrage of modesty victims.
The posters, which are displayed across the public transport network, depict the hand of a man seemingly about to molest a woman. On his wrist is a tag with the words: "2 years' imprisonment: It is not worth it".
The Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) criticised them in a Facebook post last Thursday for focusing on only the punishment but not the harm suffered by the victim.
"Why are we putting a price on sexual violence at all, like it's a commodity to purchase and consume?" said the post.
A police spokesman said in a statement last Saturday that Aware may have misunderstood the purpose of the posters.
"The posters are designed to warn would-be offenders who are unable to exercise self-discipline or control themselves," the spokesman said, adding that the visuals were designed to influence their behaviour by telling them what punishment they will face.
The posters were produced in collaboration with the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) and Singapore Polytechnic's Media, Arts and Design School. Warnings against other crimes such as theft and dishonest misappropriation of property are similarly depicted in other posters in the series.
NCPC chairman Gerald Singham said the council was mindful of the hurt that victims of crime, especially sexual crime, suffer.
He said: "It was never our intention to downplay this. However, different messages are carried via different platforms, and in this instance, we feel that crime prevention messages would be more impactful if they highlighted the personal costs to the perpetrator.
"In crime prevention, we seek pragmatic, effective solutions to keep our community safe."
The police spokesman said the police fully acknowledge that outrage of modesty victims suffer from trauma and other consequences, and that the visuals are meant to drive home the point that outrage of modesty has serious penalties.
"Our crime prevention messages are carefully curated, based on our understanding of the profile of offenders," he added.
"It is unfortunate that Aware has chosen to make these public judgments against the police without any attempt to contact us to understand our perspective."
Aware said in a separate statement yesterday that its Facebook post was not targeted at the police and that it fully supports the message that perpetrators will be held accountable for their actions.
But it added that the motif of the price tag and the poster's tagline might give its viewers the wrong impression. "Putting a price on (molestation) likens the victim to an object on a store shelf that can be purchased if one is willing to pay the price," it said. "The poster does not say that this act is wrong, only that it is expensive. This analogy has the effect of erasing the experience of the victim and any viewer's empathy for the victim."
